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Modern Satanism: Anatomy of a Radical Subculture by Chris …

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Danzig

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In 1966, Anton LaVey introduced to the world the Church of Satan, an atheistic religion devoted to the philosophy of individualism and pitilessness often associated with Satan. Modern Satanism offers a comprehensive survey and analysis of the church that LaVey built. Satanism has been an open religion for forty years now and operates successfully in its self-created countercultural niche. Given the provocative nature of its name, contemporary Satanism is only superficially understood as an alternative religion/ideology, and all-too-frequently seen as a medieval superstition and associated with rumors of obscure rituals, perverse hedonism, cult-like behavior, and tales of ritual abuse and murder. These may be misconceptions, but the truth behind the unenviable reputation is no less dramatic. Satanism generally eschews supernatural beliefs and embodies a staunchly individualistic, pitiless, anti-egalitarian creed. If there is anything fundamentally diabolical about modern Satanism, it stems more from the echoes of Nazism in its theories than from its horror-comic trappings.

Modern Satanism covers the history, ideology, personalities, and practices of the decentralized international movement that contemporary Satanism has become. The work addresses the various beliefs and practices espoused by those who follow it: the ideal of Satan as a rebellious emblem; Satanism's occult, literary, and philosophical influences; the history of the Church of Satan and other Satanic organizations; the ideology of Satanism; Satanism's frequent flirtations and strong parallels with neo-Nazism and other forms of extremism; Satanism in the media and popular culture; and the reasons for Satanism's continuing attractiveness to new converts. Though the tone of the work attempts to remain neutral when discussing historical matters, it is by necessity critical of the subculture's extremist rhetoric and recurring associations with the far right and racialist extremism.

Introduction: Counter the Counterculture

1. The Morning Star

2. Baleful Eyes

3. The Black Pope

4. Man, the Animal

5. Satanic Legions

6. The Left Hand Path

7. In The Company of Killers

8. The Plague of Nazism

9. Natural Born Satanists

10. Apocalypse Cheerleaders

Conclusion: Worst Case Scenario

Notes

Bibliography

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Jitsi for Mac – Download – jitsi.en.softonic.com

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Danzig

Jitsi is a free messenger client for Mac, which supports most major protocols and even supports video and audio conversations.

Simply choose the IM protocol that you'd like to connect to including SIP, Google Talk, XMPP/Jabber, MSN or Windows Live Messenger, AIM, Bonjour, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger and Facebook chat. In the main window, you'll find all your personal contacts.

In the Jitsi chat window, you can exchange IM messages or initiate video or audio chats including group chats. There are a limited number of emoticons and the Jitsi keeps a history of your chats. Although the interface isn't quite as intuitive as Adium. However, the fact that you can initiate audio and video chats gives it a serious advantage.

Note that this download link takes you to the nightly build page because Jitsi is being updated so regularly, that you can choose the latest version more easily.

Jitsi might not be quite as slick as other IM clients but wide support of IM protocols plus audio and video chatting makes it a very interesting option.

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Jitsi for Mac - Download - jitsi.en.softonic.com

How to Use Tor Browser for Anonymous Web Browsing

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Danzig

Getty Images (Colin Anderson #532029225)

With increased scrutiny by employers, schools and even governments becoming more commonplace, anonymity while browsing the Web has become a priority. Many users looking for an enhanced sense of privacy are turning to Tor (The Onion Router), a network originally created by the U.S. Navy and now used by countless Web surfers across the globe.

Motives for utilizing Tor, which distributes your incoming and outgoing traffic through a series of virtual tunnels, can range from reporters aiming to keep their correspondence with a secret source private to everyday internet users wishing to reach websites that have been restricted by their service provider. While some choose to exploit Tor for nefarious purposes, most Web surfers simply want to stop sites from tracking their every move or determining their geolocation.

The concept of Tor, as well as how to configure your computer to send and receive packets over the network, can prove overwhelming even to some Web-savvy veterans. Enter the Tor Browser Bundle, a software package that can get you up and running on Tor with minimal user intervention. An open-source grouping of Tor combined with a modified version of Mozilla's Firefox browser along with several key features and extensions, Tor Browser Bundle runs on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms.

This tutorial walks you through the process of obtaining and running Tor Browser Bundle so that your Web communications can once again become your business and yours alone.

Please note that no anonymization method is completely foolproof, and that even Tor users can be susceptible to prying eyes from time to time. It is wise to keep that in mind and always proceed with caution.

The Tor Browser Bundle is available for download on a multitude of sites. However, it is highly recommended that you only obtain the package files from torproject.org, the official home of Tor. Users can choose from over a dozen languages, ranging from English to Vietnamese.

To begin the download process, navigate your current browser to https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en. Next, scroll down until you find your desired option in the Language column, clicking on the linkfound under the header that corresponds to your specific operating system. Once the download is completed, Windows users should locate the Tor file and launch it. A folder will now be created at your specified location, containing all package files and named Tor Browser. Mac users should double-click on the downloaded file to open the .dmg image. Once open, drag the Tor file shown into your Applications folder. Linux users should utilize the appropriate syntax to extract the downloaded packageand then launch the Tor Browser file.

To ensure that you have received the intended package, and were not duped by a hacker, you may want to verify the signature on your downloaded package prior to utilizing it. To do so you'll need to first install GnuPG and reference the package's associated .asc file, automatically downloaded as part of the browser bundle. Visit Tor's signature verification instructions page for further details.

Now that you've downloaded the Tor Browser Bundle and possibly verified its signature, it's time to launch the application. That's right - no installation is required! Because of this, many users opt to run Tor Browser right off of a USB drive rather than placing its files on their hard drive. This method provides another level of anonymity, as a search of your local disks would reveal no trace of Tor whatsoever.

First, navigate to the location where you chose to extract the files described above. Next, within the folder labeled Tor Browser, double-click on the Start Tor Browsershortcutor launch it via your operating system's command line.

As soon as the browser is launched a connection to the Tor Network is typically initiated, depending on your individual settings.Be patient, as this process can take as little as a couple of seconds or as long as a few minutes to complete.

Once a connection to Tor is established, the Status screen will disappear and the Tor Browser itself should launch after a few brief seconds.

Tor Browser should now be visible in the foreground. All incoming and outgoing traffic generated through this browser will be routed through Tor, providing a relatively safe and anonymous browsing experience. Upon launch, the Tor Browser application automatically opens a Web page hosted on torproject.org which contains a link to test your network settings. Selecting this link displays your current IP address on the Tor network. The virtual anonymity cloak is now on, as you will notice that this is not your actual IP address.

If you'd like to view this content in a different language, utilize the drop-down menu found at the top of the page.

In addition to many of the standard Firefox features, such as the ability to bookmark pages and analyze source via the integrated Web developer toolset, TorBrowser also includes a great deal of functionality unique to itself. One of these components is Torbutton, found on the browser's address bar. Torbutton allows you to modify specific proxy and security settings. Most importantly, it provides the option to switch to a new identity - and therefore a new IP address - with a simple click of the mouse. Torbutton's options, described below, are accessible via its drop-down menu.

TorBrowser also comes prepackaged with an integrated version of the popular NoScript add-on. Accessible from a button on Tor Browser's main toolbar, this custom extension can be used to either block all scripts from running within the browser or just those on specific websites. The recommended setting is Forbid Scripts Globally.

Another well-known extension integrated with Tor Browser is HTTPS Everywhere, developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which ensures that your communication with many of the Web's top sites is forcefully encrypted. HTTPS Everywhere's functionality can be modified or disabled (not recommended) via its drop-down menu, accessible by first clicking on the main menu button (located in the upper right-hand corner of the browser window).

Psoriasis | Methods of treatment

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Danzig

Psoriasis is a common skin disorder, which is manifested by reddish flaky inflamed lesions affecting any part of the body, most commonly knees, scalp, elbows & lower back. Most patents complain of having small zones of damaged skin. Their itching and soreness can be felt in some cases. About 2% of the British suffer from this disease. The most vulnerable category is under 35-year-olds, though psoriasis may affect people of different ages irrespective of their sex. This skin disorder can have different degrees of severity from causing slight irritation to affecting entirely the life quality. There are different types of it, for example: scalp psoriasis, nail psoriasis, plaque psoriasis and others. But the treatment doesnt depend on the certain type, it depends on the complexity of the disease. Being a chronic disease, ithas a cyclical nature with the exacerbation phase, characterized by tangible manifestations of symptoms, alternating the remission phase, when the symptoms get milder or are not felt at all.

The disease is characterized by skin cells overproduction. In psoriasis, cellular renewal process, which typically lasts 3-4 weeks, significantly decreases to 3-7 days. It leads to skin cells build-up appearing on the body forming psoriasis-associated patches. Medical professionals havent succeeded in substantiating the disease cause yet. However, they tend to relate it to the immune system disorder. In normal health conditions, the immune system serves as human body protector against infections & diseases, but in psoriasis, it starts attacking skin cells. Therefore, this disease is classified as anautoimmune one. Sometimes, psoriasis affects several generations of one family, though positive family history hasnt been proved yet. Medical experts are unanimous in emphasizing the trigger of the disease, which can be a skin injury, a throat infection, or a negative effect of taking certain drugs. Fortunately, healthy people dont have to be afraid of being infected by psoriasis-affected family members or acquaintances as the disease is not contagious.

After examining a patients skin a general practitioner can diagnose psoriasis. In some instances, laboratory test biopsy will be needed to confirm the condition. In addition, a microscope-based examination will help to identify the type of disease and exclude skin disorders with similar symptoms (lichen simplex, lichen planus, pityriasis rosea, and seborrhoeic dermatitis). If your health condition is severe, or if your general practitioner is not certain about the diagnosis, he may refer you to a specialized doctor a dermatologist. In case your general practitioner suspects that you have a complication in the form of psoriatic arthritis, he will draw up a referral to a rheumatologist. To rule out rheumatoid arthritis or other similar conditions patients are asked to have their blood tested, ad their joints X-rayed.

There isnt any specific remedy for psoriasis because of its autoimmune nature. However, certain treatments can significantly reduce its symptoms and improve the overall health state. The most common treatment applied for psoriasis includes topical medications, namely analogues of vitamin D and topical corticosteroids in ointment and cream forms. In some cases a treatment plan can be supplemented with phototherapy involving applying ultraviolet light to the affected skin areas. Applying injected or oral systemic medications influencing the entire body can be prescribed to patients with complicated forms of psoriasis or if other remedies appeared to be ineffective.

The effect of the disease on peoples life quality depends on its severity. Psoriatic arthritis can cause certain discomfort because of painful swelling joints or connective tissue. As the disease affects patients appearance, their self-esteem may decrease. Therefore, learning to live with psoriasis is crucially important for patients who have to control the disease jointly with their doctors.

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Psoriasis | Methods of treatment

Psoriasis Types, Images, Treatments – onhealth.com

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Danzig

What Is Psoriasis?

Psoriasis is a genetically programmed inflammatory disease that primarily affects the skin in about 3% of individuals in the United States. Psoriasis is characterized by skin cells that multiply up to 10 times faster than normal. When these cells reach the surface and die, raised, red plaques covered with white scales form. Psoriasis begins as a small scaling papule. When multiple papules coalesce, they form scaling plaques. These plaques tend to occur in the scalp, elbows, and knees.

Although psoriatic plaques can be limited to only a few small areas, the condition can involve widespread areas of skin anywhere on the body. Psoriasis symptoms vary depending on the type of psoriasis you have. Common psoriasis symptoms can include the following:

Plaque psoriasis is the most common type of psoriasis and it gets its name from the plaques that build up on the skin. There tend to be well-defined patches of red raised skin that can appear on any area of the skin, but the knees, elbows, scalp, trunk, and nails are the most common locations. There is also a flaky, white build up on top of the plaques, called scales. Possible plaque psoriasis symptoms include skin pain, itching, and cracking.

There are plenty of over-the-counter products that are effective in the treatment of plaque psoriasis. 1% hydrocortisone cream is a topical steroid that can suppress mild disease and preparations containing tar are effective in treating plaque psoriasis.

Scalp psoriasis is a common skin disorder that makes raised, reddish, often scaly patches. Scalp psoriasis can affect your whole scalp, or just pop up as one patch. This type of psoriasis can even spread to the forehead, the back of the neck, or behind the ears. Scalp psoriasis symptoms may include only slight, fine scaling. Moderate to severe scalp psoriasis symptoms may include dandruff-like flaking, dry scalp, and hair loss. Scalp psoriasis does not directly cause hair loss, but stress and excess scratching or picking of the scalp may result in hair loss.

Scalp psoriasis can be treated with medicated shampoos, creams, gels, oils, ointments, and soaps. Salicylic acid and coal tar are two medications in over-the-counter products that help treat scalp psoriasis. Steroid injections and phototherapy may help treat mild scalp psoriasis. Biologics are the latest class of medications that can also help treat severe scalp psoriasis.

Guttate psoriasis looks like small, pink dots or drops on the skin. The word guttate is from the Latin word gutta, meaning drop. There tends to be fine scales with guttate psoriasis that is finer than the scales in plaque psoriasis. Guttate psoriasis is typically triggered by streptococcal (strep throat) and the outbreak will usually occur two to three weeks after having strep throat.

Guttate psoriasis tends to go away after a few weeks without treatment. Moisturizers can be used to soften the skin. If there is a history of psoriasis, a doctor may take a throat culture to determine if strep throat is present. If the throat culture shows that streptococcal is present, a doctor may prescribe antibiotics.

Many patients with psoriasis have abnormal nails. Psoriatic nails often have a horizontal white or yellow margin at the tip of the nail called distal onycholysis because the nail is lifted away from the skin. There can often be small pits in the nail plate, and the nail is often yellow and crumbly.

The same treatment for skin psoriasis is beneficial for nail psoriasis. However, since nails grow slow, it may take a while for improvements to be evident. Nail psoriasis can be treated with phototherapy, systemic therapy (medications that spread throughout the body), and steroids (cream or injection). If medications do not improve the condition of nail psoriasis, a doctor may surgically remove the nail.

Psoriasis can be associated with a destructive arthritis called psoriatic arthritis. Damage can be serious enough to permanently damage the affected joints. Prevention of joint damage in such cases is very important.

Psoriatic arthritis is a chronic disease characterized by a form of inflammation of the skin and joints. About 15%-25% of patients with psoriasis also develop an inflammation of their joints. Psoriatic arthritis is a systemic rheumatic disease that can not only cause inflammation of the skin, but in the eyes, heart, kidneys, and lungs as well. Currently, the cause of psoriatic arthritis is unknown, but a combination of genetic, immune, and environmental facts is likely involved.

Typically, a patient will have psoriasis months or years before they develop psoriatic arthritis. Psoriatic arthritis usually involves the knees, ankles, and joints in the feet. There may also be a loss of range of motion of the involved joints as well as joint stiffness. Psoriatic arthritis can also cause inflammation of the spine and the sacrum, which causes pain and stiffness in the low back, buttocks, neck, and upper back.

Treatment for psoriatic arthritis generally involves anti-inflammatory medications and exercise. It is important to stretch or take a hot shower before exercise in order to relax the muscles. Ice application after exercise can help minimize soreness and inflammation. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may also reduce joint inflammation, pain, and stiffness.

It is now clear that there is a genetic basis for psoriasis. This hereditary predisposition is necessary before the disease can be triggered by environmental factors. White blood cells called T-cells mediate the development of the psoriatic plaques that are present in the skin. When someone has psoriasis, their body is unable to offer protection from invaders. Instead, inflammation is promoted and skin cells are on overdrive. When cell growth is increased, old skin cells pile up instead of flaking off, causing psoriasis to occur. Currently, most experts conclude that environmental, genetic and immunologic factors interact to cause the disease.

If you have the genetic basis of psoriasis, a trigger can cause psoriasis to flare up. The following are triggers that may set off one's psoriasis:

No, psoriasis is not contagious. People used to believe that psoriasis was the same as leprosy, but that is not the case. You cannot get psoriasis by touching, kissing, or having sex with someone who has psoriasis. People get psoriasis because of their genes, not their hygiene, diet, lifestyle, or any other habits.

Psoriasis is often diagnosed or at least suspected on the basis of its appearance and distribution. However, psoriasis may resemble eczema or other skin diseases and further tests may be required. It may be necessary to remove a small piece of skin (a biopsy) and have it examined by a pathologist to confirm the diagnosis. If there are joint symptoms, X-rays and other laboratory tests may be in order. Psoriasis cannot be cured, but like many other medical conditions, it is controllable with treatment. Your doctor may have you seen by a consultant such as a dermatologist, rheumatologist or immunologist to help diagnose and treat your form of psoriasis.

Since psoriasis mainly affects the skin, topical treatments are very useful because they are relatively safe, fairly effective, and can be applied directly to the affected skin. They take the form of lotions, foams, creams, ointments, gels, and shampoos. They include topical steroids, tar preparations, and calcium- modulating drugs. The precise drug used and the form in which it is delivered depends on the areas involved. In widespread disease in patients with more than 10% of the body surface involved, it may not be practical to use topical medication alone.

For more extensive psoriasis, a useful option is ultraviolet (UV) light exposure. UV light can treat large areas of skin with few side effects, if performed in the physician's office. It should be kept in mind that all UV light causes mutational events, which can lead to skin cancer. At this time, the most popular type of UV light for psoriasis is called narrow-band UVB. Only a small portion of the UV light spectrum is used, which seems to be particularly beneficial for psoriasis and may be less carcinogenic. This UVB is quite different from the UVA, the wavelength available in tanning salons, which is not effective in psoriasis. Phototherapy can be used alone or with medications when treating psoriasis.

Excimer lasers or pulsed dye lasers are used in laser therapy. A pulsed dye laser will create a concentrated beam of yellow light. When this light hits the skin, it converts to heat. The heat then destroys the extra blood vessels in the skin that contribute to psoriasis. Excimer lasers will deliver ultraviolet light to localized areas of the skin that help treat psoriasis. These lasers produce UV light in wavelengths similar to narrow-band UVB. Laser therapy uses intense doses of laser light to help control areas of mild to moderate psoriasis without damaging surrounding healthy skin. These can be quite effective for small plaques of psoriasis, but since only small areas of skin can be treated at once, they are not practical for extensive disease.

There are a variety of drugs administered systemically that are useful in controlling psoriasis. As a generalization, most oral medications act by targeting portions of the immune system. The only exception currently is a drug called acitretin (Soriatane), which is structurally similar to vitamin A. Since the immune system is necessary in order to survive, systemic treatments do have a downside. Drugs like methotrexate and cyclosporine are administered orally and can affect the liver, kidney, and bone marrow. A new oral medication recently approved for treatment of psoriasis is called Otezla (apremilast). Otezla selectively targets molecules inside immune cells and adjusts (reduces) the processes of inflammation within the cell, which in turn helps treat psoriasis. This drug appears to be considerably safer that most of its predecessors but is also quite expensive.

A new class of drugs has recently been developed called biologics; they're called biologics because living cells synthesize them. Since these drugs are proteins, they cannot be administered orally and must be given by injection through the skin or by an intravenous infusion. This treatment is recommended in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis. These drugs target the immune response that leads to the rapid skin cell growth of psoriasis. This seems to have increased their safety profile as well as their effectiveness when compared to older drugs. On the other hand, they are quite expensive costing up to $30,000 a year.

There are many home remedies that can be used in the treatment of psoriasis. It is very important to keep the skin moist to avoid dryness. Petroleum jelly, shortening, or olive oil can be used as a moisturizer. Take fewer showers and baths to avoid stripping the skin of its natural oils. Adding salts, oil, or finely ground oatmeal to the bath can soothe the skin. Heliotherapy (medicinal sunbathing) can be effective in controlling psoriasis. There is also evidence that increased body mass is associated with psoriasis and that heavier individuals are more difficult to treat.

At the edge of Israel's Dead Sea, there are a group of resorts that cater to psoriasis patients by offering a combination of graded solar exposure and the application of crude coal tar along with a spa-like experience. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth, more than 400 meters below sea level. Once the sun's rays pass through the haze, the harmful ultraviolet rays are filtered out and the remaining rays are highly effective in treating psoriasis. For those with the time and the money, this is a reasonable alternative to standard medical treatment.

Although there is no doubt that psoriasis is a potent inducer of stress, the evidence that stress causes psoriasis is sparse. However, stress can make psoriasis worse, and psoriasis can make one stressed. Dealing with stress with or without psoriasis is a challenge for most people living in the 21st century. The following are tips to reduce stress:

Not only are the physical effects of psoriasis frustrating, but the emotional effects of psoriasis can be much worse. Psoriasis may cause your relationships to change and people may treat you differently. Unfortunately, this may lead to stress, which then leads to worsening psoriasis. A doctor may prescribe antidepressant medications if psoriasis is diminishing your quality of life. Support groups can also help you cope with psoriasis by talking to other people who are suffering from the same disease.

Fall and winter may bring shorter days, colder temperatures, and dry air. These can all lead to worsening psoriasis symptoms. The sun's ultraviolet light hinders the rapid growth of skin cells that is characteristic of psoriasis. Therefore, spending less time in the sun may cause psoriasis symptoms to flare. The dry weather may remove moisture in your skin so it is important to use moisturizer and/or a humidifier at home.

There are many different remedies that may ease psoriasis symptoms. The following is a partial list of alternative medicine to help treat psoriasis:

Consult your doctor before trying new medications.

There is plenty of evidence that extensive psoriasis can have a very significant negative effect on a patient's self-image and emotions. This is especially true in social situations, although all aspects of life can be disturbed. Inverse psoriasis, which affects the genital skin, and scalp psoriasis can be particularly troubling. Psoriasis affecting the hands may make it impossible to interact normally with others. It is important to remember that there are ways to manage and treat psoriasis flares. It may seem as if one's quality of life has diminished, but there are many organizations that offer support to psoriasis patients. The National Psoriasis Foundation is an excellent source of accurate information as well as emotional support for afflicted patients.

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Psoriasis Types, Images, Treatments - onhealth.com

Space Station – TV Tropes

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Danzig

An artificial structure in space, where people live and work. Unlike the Cool Starship, the Space Station is usually fixed in orbit around a planet or at a particular point in space. It also allows for the construction of a standing studio set and avoids expensive location shoots. Real-world space stations have existed since 1971 (Salyut 1) and four of them the International Space Station, the Chinese Tiangong-1, and Genesis I & II (both unmanned) are currently in orbit. These are all much smaller than what one is used to in sci-fi shows. The list for the interested can be seen below. Space stations in fiction have a tendency to be very large, sometimes housing an entire city. Many have adopted a wheel design for a centrifuge-based system of gravity (unless Artificial Gravity is employed), but this is not obligatory. If sufficiently large to support a sizable permanent population, a space-station may be referred to as an "orbital habitat" or "space colony". Don't drop it! The problem of gas exchange and food production is often solved by incorporating a closed ecosystem and green plants onboard, sometimes in dirt, sometimes hydroponics, sometimes algae aquaculture. Fictional examples:

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Space Station - TV Tropes

Permitted Space Station List – fcc.gov

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Danzig

Conditions:

1. NSS-703 is not authorized to provide any Direct-to-Home (DTH) service, Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) service, or Digital Audio Radio Service (DARS) to, from, or within the United States.

2. Communications between ALSAT-designated earth stations and the NSS-703 space station shall be in compliance with all existing and future space station coordination agreements reached between Gibraltar and other Administrations.

3. SES Gibraltars request for a waiver of 47 C.F.R 25.202(g) is GRANTED, as conditioned. Section 25.202(g) requires that telemetry, tracking, and telecommand functions for U.S. domestic satellites shall be conducted at either or both edges of the allocated bands. Frequencies, polarization, and coding shall be selected to minimize interference into other satellite networks and within their own satellite system. SES Gibraltar proposes to place its telemetry, tracking, and telecommand (TT&C) functions near the center of the conventional C-band at the 47.05 W.L. orbital location, which is within the orbital arc that provides coverage to the United States. The NSS-703 space station was placed into operation in 1994 in order to provide service outside of the U.S., and the TT&C frequencies upon which it relies cannot be altered. We grant a limited waiver of Section 25.202(g) subject to the following conditions:

4. SES Gibraltars request for a waiver of Section 25.210(a)(1) of the Commissions rules, 47 C.F.R. 25.210(a)(1) is GRANTED, as conditioned. Section 25.210(a)(1) requires that C-band operations use orthogonal linear polarization. The NSS-703 satellite uses circular polarization. This waiver is based upon the findings that: 1) the space station is in-orbit and the polarization cannot be changed; and 2) there is a minimal potential for harmful interference from operations at this location with circular polarization. As a condition of this waiver, SES Gibraltar must accommodate future space station networks that are compliant with Section 25.210(a)(1). Further, SES Gibraltar must operate NSS-703 pursuant to any coordination agreements for this location.

5. SES Gibraltars request for a waiver of Section 25.210(a)(3) of the Commissions rules, 47 C.F.R. 25.210(a)(3) is GRANTED, as conditioned. Section 25.210(a)(3) requires FSS space stations to be capable of switching polarization sense on ground command. The Commission requires polarity switching capability for two reasons: 1) to provide U.S. licensed space stations with the flexibility to operate at different orbital locations; and 2) to mitigate potential interference between adjacent fixed space station systems transmitting analog television signals. See Telesat Canada, Petition for Declaratory Ruling for Inclusion of ANIK F3 on the Permitted Space Station List, Order, 22 FCC Rcd 588 (Int Bur., Sat. Div. 2007). This waiver is based upon a finding that the ability to switch polarization is not currently necessary to protect other space stations at adjacent orbital locations from harmful interference. As a condition of this waiver, NSS-703s operations must accommodate future space station networks that are compliant with Section 25.210(a)(3). Further, SES Gibraltar must operate NSS-703 pursuant to any coordination agreements for this location.

6. SES Gibraltars request for a waiver of Section 25.210(i) of the Commissions rules, 47 C.F.R. 25.210(i) is GRANTED, as conditioned. Section 25.210(i) requires FSS space station antennas to provide cross-polarization isolation such that the ratio of the on-axis co-polar gain to the crosspolar gain of the antenna in the assigned frequency band is at least 30 dB within its primary coverage area. The performance of the NSS-703 space station is 35 dB for the C-band global beam and 27 dB for all other C-band beams. For its Ku-band spot beams, the worst-case cross polarization isolation is in the 17-20 dB range. We agree that a waiver will not produce a significant increase in interference, except to SES Gibraltar itself. As a condition of this waiver, we will not permit SES Gibraltar to transmit analog video signals in the C-band frequencies into the United States unless it has coordinated such operations with adjacent satellites. Further, SES Gibraltar shall not claim more protection from interference from other licensed radiocommunication systems operating in accordance with Section 25.210(i) of the Commissions rules than it could claim if it met the cross-polarization requirements set forth in the rule.

7. SES Gibraltars request for a waiver of 25.210(j) of the Commissions rules, 47 C.F.R. 25.210(j) is GRANTED, as conditioned. Section 25.210(j) requires geostationary space stations to be maintained within 0.05 of their assigned orbital locations in the East/West direction unless specifically authorized by the Commission to operate with a different longitudinal tolerance. SES Gibraltar requests a waiver to permit NSS-703 to operate with an East/West station-keeping volume of 0.10 as specified in a letter to the Commission from the Radiocommunications Agency Netherlands. SES Gibraltar states that this extended station-keeping volume does not overlap with the station keeping volume of any known operational satellites, nor is SES Gibraltar aware of any proposed satellite to be launched or placed into orbit at the nominal 47 W.L. orbital location in the near term. We grant SES Gibraltars request to operate NSS-703 with 0.10 East/West longitudinal tolerance, as long as no other space station is located within the station-keeping volume of NSS-703. Should such a spacecraft be launched or relocated into the station-keeping volume of NSS-703, but would not overlap a 0.05 East/West station keeping volume, SES Gibraltar will be required to maintain 0.05 East/West station-keeping, or coordinate its operations with that of the other space station.

8. SES Gibraltars request for a waiver of Section 25.211(a) of the Commissions rules, 47 C.F.R. 25.211(a) is GRANTED, as conditioned. Section 25.211(a) provides that downlink analog video transmissions in the C-band shall be transmitted only on a center frequency of 3700+20N MHz, where N=1 to 24, with corresponding uplink frequencies 2225 MHz higher. This waiver grant is based upon SES Gibraltars statement that it does not intend to transmit analog video signals in the C-band frequencies, unless such operations are coordinated with adjacent satellites. Further, as a condition of this waiver, SES Gibraltar must accommodate future space station networks serving the United States that are compliant with Section 25.211(a). In addition, SES Gibraltar must operate NSS-703 pursuant to any coordination agreements for this location.

9. SES Gibraltars request for a waiver of Section 25.114(c)(4)(iii) of the Commission's rules, 47 C.F.R. 25.114(c)(4)(iii), is GRANTED. Section 25.114(c)(4)(iii) requires applicants to identify which antenna beams are connected or switchable to each transponder and tracking, telemetry, and control (TT&C) function. SES Gibraltar has submitted the combined receiver and transmitter filter response characteristics (Section 5.5 and Exhibit D in the Technical Appendix). It also states that the disaggregated filter response characteristics are not available and maintains that the aggregate characteristics it submitted provide sufficient information for an assessment of the interference potential of the satellite. We find that information provided in Section 5.5 and Exhibit D of the Technical Appendix fulfills the requirements of Section 25.114(c)(4)(iii).

10. SES Gibraltars request for a waiver of Section 25.114(c)(10) of the Commissions rules, 47 C.F.R. 25.114(c)(10) is GRANTED, as conditioned. Section 25.114(c)(10) requires applicants to submit information regarding the physical characteristics of the space station, including estimated operational lifetime and reliability of the space station. SES Gibraltar states that it does not have the original reliability estimates because the satellite was transferred to New Skies prior to Intelsats privatization in 2000. We grant the waiver based on SES Gibraltars statements that the NSS-703 space station, launched in 1994, has exceeded all reliability projections as it has survived past its design end-of-life. SES Gibraltar further states that the satellite is in good working condition and expected to survive until its estimated end of life in August 2014.

11. This grant of market access is based on SES Gibraltars representation that it will dispose of the NSS-703 spacecraft at end of life to a minimum altitude of 150 kilometers (perigee) above the geostationary arc, that it has reserved 19.3 kilograms of fuel for this purpose, and that fuel gauging uncertainty has been and will be taken into account in these calculations, using the methods set forth in SES Gibraltars application.

12. This grant of market access is limited to SES Gibraltars use of the NSS-703 space station (Call Sign 2818) at the 47.05 W.L. orbital location and does not convey to SES Gibraltar first-in-line status under the Commissions first-come, first-served processing framework. If SES Gibraltar seeks to operate another space station at this location using the frequencies authorized in this grant, such an application, together with any applications filed by other companies seeking similar authority, would be subject to the first-come, first-served processing framework for geostationary-satellite orbit space stations.

13. This grant of market access will terminate in the event that the NSS-703 space station is relocated from the 47.05 W.L. orbital location or ceases to operate. In either case, NSS-703 will be removed from the Permitted List. If SES Gibraltar wishes to provide service to the U.S. using another space station, it must file a new application to have that space station placed on the Permitted List.

14. SES Gibraltar is afforded 30 days from the date of release of this action to decline the authorization as conditioned. Failure to respond within this period will constitute formal acceptance of the authorization as conditioned.

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Permitted Space Station List - fcc.gov

The Futurist (Robert Downey Jr. album) – Wikipedia

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Danzig

The Futurist is the debut studio album by American actor Robert Downey Jr., produced by Jonathan Elias and Mark Hudson, and released on November 23, 2004 through Sony Classical. The album debuted at number 121 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 16,000 copies in its first week.[1][2]

The album received mixed reviews, but Downey stated in 2006 that he probably will not do another album, as he felt that the energy he put into doing the album was not compensated. He explained that he did not want to spend whatever time he had at home in the studio, but rather with his family. "Broken" plays during the end credits to Downey's 2005 film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

The Futurist consists of eight pop ballads written by Downey, as well as two cover songs: "Smile", a Charlie Chaplin composition; and "Your Move", the first half of the song "I've Seen All Good People" by Yes.[3] The song "Hannah" is an allusion to Downey's 2000 film Wonder Boys.[4]

The album was produced by Jonathan Elias and Mark Hudson, with Downey playing on the piano on some of the tracks.

AllMusic's Matt Collar rated the album 3.5/5, and called Downey's lyrics "obtuse". However, he praised his interpretations of other musicians' work, such as "Your Move" by Yes and Charlie Chaplin's "Smile", and called the album "unpredictably moving as the best of Downey's film work."[5]

Elysa Gardner of USA Today wrote that the vibe on Downey's album "can seem pretentious or simply dull after a while, but there is a moody musicality to tracks such as 'Man Like Me' and 'Details'."[6]

Credits adapted from AllMusic.[7]

In the 2016 Marvel Studios film, Captain America: Civil War, Clint Barton mockingly refers to Tony Stark (played by Downey) as "The Futurist".

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The Futurist (Robert Downey Jr. album) - Wikipedia

Draft Of Trump ‘Religious Freedom’ Executive Order Signals …

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Danzig

President Donald Trump may soon hand a major victory to conservative Christians with a religious freedom executive order that would cripple anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people, among others.

A draft of an executive order says the government will not force individuals or organizations to engage in activities that may violate their conscience. The Huffington Post obtained the draft,titled, Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom, from two sources.

If signed, the order would appear to allow employers to deny employee health coverage for contraception and abortion. It also would permit federally funded adoption and family services organizations to discriminate against same-sex couples.

Further, it would protect the tax-exempt status of any religious organization or privately held company that believes, speaks, or acts (or declines to act) in accordance with the belief that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage, male and female and their equivalents refer to an individuals immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy, physiology, or genetics at or before birth, and that human life begins at conception and merits protection at all stages of life.

The order,first reported by The Nation and Reveal, isnt final, and appears to be among hundreds of draft executive orders being circulated that wont necessarily become policy, ABC News reported. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, told ABC: We do not have plans to sign anything at this time but will let you know when we have any updates.

The draft order defines religious freedom in broad terms, but specifically refers to organizations right to claim religious objections to same-sex marriage, abortion, transgender rights, contraception and premarital sex. It wouldrequire the Department of Justice to defend suchreligious freedom.

The leak of the order comes a day after Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. Gorsuch sided with Christian-owned retailer Hobby Lobby in a controversial Supreme Court religious freedom case in 2013.

A pro-Christian order would stand in stark contrast to an executive order Trump signed last week to deny visasfor individuals from seven Muslim-majority countries. Noah Feldman, a professor of constitutional and international law at Harvard University, said Trumps banviolates the constitutional value of equal religious liberty.

The Washington Post via Getty Images

The religious freedom draft states that protected organizations would include closely held for-profit corporations. Individuals and organizations would not forfeit their religious freedom when providing social services, education, or healthcare; earning a living, seeking a job, or employing others; receiving government grants or contracts; or otherwise participating in the marketplace, the public square, or interfacing with Federal, State or local governments, it says.

LGBTQ groups have beenbracing or the worst as news spread that Trumps administration was considering a religious freedom order.

Chad Griffin, president of LGBT civil rights organization Human Rights Campaign, called the draft sweeping and dangerous.

It reads like a wishlist from some of the most radical anti-equality activists. If true, it seems this White House is poised to wildly expand anti-LGBTQ discrimination across all facets of the government, Griffin said in a statement.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) denounced the draft order in a statement, saying the president continues his hateful attacks on the communities that comprise our nation this time by encouraging discrimination against the LGBT community, and by the denial of reproductive health care to women, all under the guise of so-called religious freedom.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act protects people from discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion and national origin, but there are no federal protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. President Barack Obama signed an executive order in 2014 that protected federal contractors from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Trumps order could circumvent these protections.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer would neither confirm nor deny reports about the religious order during a briefing on Monday. The following day, the White House released a statement touting Trumps support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals.

Religious freedom exemptions typically offer conservative Christians the right to discriminate against gay and transgender people.

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Draft Of Trump 'Religious Freedom' Executive Order Signals ...

Human Activities that Affect the Ecosystem | Sciencing

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Danzig

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Human Activities that Affect the Ecosystem | Sciencing

Entheogens – Reality Sandwich

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Danzig

A selection of the best articles on entheogens:

In the Beginning: The Birth of a Psychedelic Culture By John Perry BarlowThe introduction of LSD may have been the most important event in the cultural history of America since the 1860s. Before acid hit, even rebels such as Thoreau, Emerson, and Whitmanbelieved in God-given authority. But after one had rewired one's self with LSD, authoritybecame hilarious, and there wasn't much we could do about it.

Voyaging to DMT Space with Dr. Rick Strassman, M.D. By Martin W. BallDr. Rick Strassman, pioneering psychedelic researcher, discusses his new book,Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies as well as Zen Buddhism, psychedelics and spirituality, Old Testament prophecy and more in this fascinating interview.

LSD as a Spiritual Aid By Albert HofmannThere is common consent that the evolution of mankind is paralleled by the increase and expansion of consciousness. From the described process of how consciousness originates and develops, it becomes evident that its growth depends on its faculty of perception. Therefore every means of improving this faculty should be used.

Positive Possibilities for Psychedelics: A Time of Tentative Celebration By James FadimanFor those of us involved with psychedelics, this is a time of unexpected changes, a time of tentative celebration. After decades of winter, the ice is thinning. The warming trends toward legalization; increased religious, medical, and psychotherapeutic use; scientific exploration; and cultural acceptance are encouraging.

2012 and the Psychedelic Shamans By Thomas RazzetoIn my opinion, world conditions are not the point of the 2012 message. The message is more profound. It is about the fundamental principle of reality, as revealed by the psychedelic experiences of the shamans.

Heart of the Great Spirit: The Peyote Cactus By Stephen GrayI've been hesitant to share details regarding the NAC. It was only the approval of Native spiritual elder Kanucas that gave me the feeling it was appropriate to share this information with a wider audience. This church is a refuge of sanity in a disturbed world. It's a sacred treasure to be protected and nurtured with the utmost respect and sensitivity.

Mushroom Gnosis: Simon Powell's Psilocybin Solution By Diana Reed SlatteryPracticing xenolinguist Diana Slattery writes about Simon Powells new book,"The Psilocybin Solution, The Role of Sacred Mushrooms in the Quest for Meaning," that concerns the ability of the psilocybin experience to deliver high-speed downloads; information transmission as communication with the Other; and especially, information delivered as a visual language of intense concentration.

Consciousness and Asian Traditions: An Evolutionary Perspective By Roger WalshThe original shamans and their external technologies induce a sense of freedom from embodiment. The early yogis carry that freedom into the disentanglement of consciousness from phenomena and the world. The Vedantic tradition recognizes that the self and the divine are actually one, and the non-dual traditions recognize that all is divine.

The Universal Heart By Daniel MolerThe shaman is the pure embodiment of Love. He spent every waking moment giving of himself and healing our spirits, as the true embodiment of self-sacrifice. I understand now why the Peruvian shamans had no issue with adopting the Christ story into the Pachakti Mesa tradition.

What Can Entheogens Teach Us? By James OrocThe more a compound disrupts the Ego, the physically safer (less toxic) that compound will be, while the more a 'drug' reinforces and inflates the sense of Ego, the more physically harmful (toxic) that compound will be.

The First Supper: Entheogens and the Origin of Religion By Ruck Hoffman Gonzalez CeldranIt has been speculated that the rapid increase in hominid brain size 1.5 million years ago occurred when our ancestors began to consume consciousness-altering foods. Perhaps our species became truly human when we began eating sacred foods ritualistically in groups, in what can be seen as First Suppers.

On the Edge of Life and Death: The Nios Santos Way By Sarah MaidenWhen I first encountered the mushrooms, I had been taking antidepressants for years. The mushrooms told me I was an addict and that the pills were toxic to me. After being hospitalized due to my reaction to Paxil at age 19, I decided the mushrooms were right. Eventually, I met a Mazatec grandmother who holds a Nios Santos lineage of curandisimo.

Energy, Ego, and Entheogens: The Reality of Human Liberation from Illusion By Martin W. BallRecently, I published an article criticizing Terence McKenna's lectures on DMT. The article generated a great deal of backlash and some serious questions. Now I'd like to follow up on the issue of human liberation from self-generated illusions.

Meditation and "Drugs" By Jay MichaelsonIt's a not-so-dirty little secret that most of today's leading meditation teachers were interested in drugs. By "drugs," of course, I don't mean alcohol or Oxycontin, but rather that subset of chemicals which our society has deemed unfit for human consumption, including cannabis, psilocybin, MDMA, and others.

Salva Divinorum: Intensification By J.D. ArthurSalvia allows one, even instructs one, to gradually, and without fear, abandon the framework of reason that's based on a cumbersome conceptual reference. It can lead to a unique state that one might characterize as "thoughtless awareness." This state, although on the surface seemingly paradoxical, is actually strangely and reassuringly familiar.

When Prayer Meets Medicine By Stephen GrayWhen the peyote takes effect and the energy really gets rolling, the songs begin to sing the singers, the drum is a living spirit, and the fire has things to show us. It's a radically different way to pray. If we can find skillful ways to combine the visionary, teaching, healing medicines with our intentions, with our prayers, a whole new landscape of possibility opens up.

Adventures with Mazatec Mint: Exploring the Mind-Bending World of Salvia Divinorum By David Jay BrownAnumber of researchers think that salvinorin A, the potent dissociative psychedelic compound found in this perennial herb from Oaxaca, may have applications as an antidepressant, an analgesic, and as a therapeutic tool for treating drug addictions, some types of stroke, and Alzheimer's Disease.

Divine Voyeurs: Salvia on YouTube By Rak RazamSalvia divinorum, also known as "Diviner's Sage," has been called "the most powerful hallucinogenic known to mankind" by enthusiasts on the net. So how does it feel to be on salvia with a camera phone in your face? In the post-Jackass, reality-TV generation nothing is sacred.

Entheogenic Spirituality as a Human Right By Martin W. BallU.S. law sees "freedom of religion" as referring primarily to the freedom to believe and secondarily to the freedom to practice. However, something sorely missing from our legal protections is any recognition of the significance of direct spiritual experience itself, including with sacred plants.

Emerging from the Dark Age: The Revival of Psychedelic Medicine By Charles ShawAfter a forty-year moratorium on research driven by propaganda and political repression, treating some of lifes most challenging illnesses with psychedelic compounds has made a miraculous comeback. A deeply personal story about some of these miracles.

Drugs and Dharma in the 21st Century Allan BadinerTwo great directions in human thought and activity have recently been coming into sharper focus.Interest in Buddhism has not been greater since it was first introduced to China where it proceeded to grow steadily for 500 years, and the serious and thoughtful use of psychedelics is making a resurgence, perhaps more profoundly than in the Sixties.

DMT, Creativity and a Philosophy of Psychedelics By Terra CelesteIn this interview, Mitch Schultz, director of DMT: The Spirit Molecule, describes how a DMT experience inspired him to create a series of documentary films exploring quantum awareness, humanity's relationship to the life force of Earth, and the role of music, open source ideas, and the cyber-realm in generating new, non-destructive meta-mythiologies.

Back to RS Gnosis Files.

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Entheogens - Reality Sandwich

Why No Kids – We’re childfree and happy. You could be too!

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Danzig

Props to Jesse Nichols(@HappyNinjaUX) for reminding parents that childfree adults indeed childfree couples dont hate children. Not necessarily. Not in his case, at least, nor in my case. Kids have been (and will continue to be) an important part of my life. As a teacher, coach, advisor, uncle, friend, and unabashed man-child, children []

At 29, female and happily married, there is one question I despise more than all others. Its the dreaded, When are you going to have kids? People always throw it in there casually, too. Usually between such innocuous questions as, Hows your mother? or, Wheres the bathroom? Just as Im getting comfortable in a conversation, []

How tinted do your grievance glasses have to be to see a bias TOWARDS parents in todays economy? Im sorry, employers value parents? []Trying to work and raisechildren at the same time in this country is exhausting and expensive No wonder parents are miserableBut most of the issues articulated in thisFortunepiece are work-life balance issues, []

Since the 1970s, being childfree not wanting children has slowly become more recognized as a legitimate choice[but]we still have a ways to go when it comes to society accepting those with no children without judgment or stigma. This lack of acceptance has played out in the workplace. (Source: The Brutal Truth About Being []

Childfree articles in the press usually get a lot of below-the-line debate. Lilit Marcus, writing for The Guardian about some of the factors behind her decision to remain childfree, definitely stirred the pot last week. Some didnt bother disguising their vitriol, but Ive discovered that theres a new passive-aggressive approach on the block. This approach []

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Why No Kids - We're childfree and happy. You could be too!

Happily Childfree – Children’s Health Health Care Blog

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Danzig

Choosing to be Childfree

Childfreedom is choosing not to create or raise any children. Its about wanting to devote our lives to other objectives. For some that is their careers, for others their hobbies. Most childfree people recognize that parenting is a stressful, time-consuming and often thankless job, and wed rather do something else with our lives.

Making the choice to be childfree is not something that is chosen lightly. In many cases childfree people have thought longer and harder about why NOT to have kids than their counterparts have thought about why TO have kids.

To anyone considering the childfree life: dont have children if you dont want them. I dont care if everyone you know tells you that youll grow up and change your mind, that everyone wants kids, that all women have a maternal instinct, or that youll never get a husband or wife if you dont want kids. Dont fall for that! Trust your own instinct and be true to yourself. If you dont want those kids, its better to not have them.

Making this choice is not an easy road to travel. It means having the courage tobe different from most everyone else you know. Youll have to write your own life script, since the traditional one doesnt apply to you. You have to be strong, as you may face a lot of social stigma. Your family and friends might try to convince you to have kids and if that doesnt work, they might try to belittle you into it. You may have a hard time making new friends because most everyone else is having kids and thats all they talk about anymore. You might also have a hard time finding a spouse (if you even want one) because every year the dating pool will shrink as more people in your age group will have kids.

But its certainly not all bad. Youll have a lot more time to spend with your friends and loved ones. You will be able to nurture your romantic relationships more as well. Youll have more time for your education and career. Youll also have more time for hobbies, travel and learning. Trust me, its going to be a lot of fun!

Most importantly, youll have more time to spend on yourself, and finding out who you really are and what you really want out of life; what you believe in and what you dont. When people ask you who you are and what you do, you will have to come up with a better answer than the old standby of, Well, Im a mommy. But thats what makes us more thoughtful and creative. Weve taken the time to find out who we really are, rather than just fall into the stereotypical roles.

Fencesitters

If you havent decided yet if you want kids, or if you are in a fencesitter relationship (one of you wants kids and one doesnt), check out the Fencesitterspage.

Childfree People

If you choose to search out other childfree people on the net or in real life, youll find that outside of not wanting children, were all very different. Some people are childfree, some are fencesitters, and some are childless. Some love children but just dont want their own, some dont care to be around children and some hate them.Some are rich, some are comfortable and some are barely making ends meet. Some had bad childhoods, some had ideal childhoods. Childfree people are a very different and diverse group who have one thing in common: the desire to never have children.

I wont apologize for people who hate children. There is a big difference between people who hate something and people who harm them. Most likely they hate being AROUND children more than they hate the children themselves, but I wont speak for them. But if you stop to think about it, most people who harm children are parents themselves, not childfree people.

I myself strongly dislike most children. I dont hate them, but I generally dont like them or enjoy being around them. Most of that has to do with the behavior of children today, not with the mere fact that they are children.

Childfree Lingo

Some people find the words childfree people use to be offensive. I can appreciate that, but I think if people need to use it to blow off some steam in childfree groups, let them. Whats it really hurting, anyway? I have yet to see a childfree person actually walk up to someone with kids and start calling them these names in public. Sticks and stones, people, especially when its behind your back and not to your face. If the only way some people can vent their anger is through using a few mildly offensive words on a childfree message board, just let it go. Words and actions are completely different things.

I liken it to going home and ranting to your spouse about something stupid your coworkers did. Who hasnt done that? You might even get along (mostly) with your coworkers, but sometimes theyll drive you nuts. You go home, say to your spouse, Jennifer is the biggest moron on the planet! You know what she did today? Its just blowing off steam.

I do not and would not encourage anyone to use these words in public or to someones face. That wouldnt serve any purpose at all.

Formerly Childfree

Personally, I dont believe there is any such thing as I USED to be childfree most of us find that it offensive when people make this claim. Many of us have fought way too long to be taken seriously in our choice, and all the non-childfree people who claim they used to be childfree just discredit us. Please dont take them seriously.

As far as Im concerned, if you changed your mind, you were never really childfree to begin with. At best you were a fence sitter (someone not sure if they want kids or not) and at worst you are just a poser who, at the time, wanted to fit in with your childfree friends.

I realize saying that could alienate some people, but thats the breaks. The way I see it, if youd been really happy being childfree, you wouldnt have changed your mind. And if you werent really happy being childfree, how could you have really *been* childfree? To me it looks more like you were pre-childed, or childless at that time.

Ive been around the childfree community to know there are some people who are really, truly childfree (i.e. never had any desire to have kids, not the tiniest bit, we could never imagine having them AT ALL), and there are others who dont have kids for whatever reason but arent as adamant about it and might change their minds.Im not trying to play CFer than Thou or anything. My point is that if someone changes their mind, they were ever one of the No Way, No How, Never group of childfree.

Since occasionally Ive been asked to elaborate, here are some examples. You are free to agree or disagree with them, Im just stating what Ive observed: Some are childless who learned to accept it, but if by a miracle they found themselves pregnant, they would probably want to keep it. Some people are on the fence or in a fencesitter relationship but if one or the other partner changed their minds, theyd have a kid. Some people never really got the opportunity to have kids because they didnt want to do it alone, but never had a really serious relationship to have kids in but if they got into that kind of relationship, they might have kids. It happens. Some people would have kids if they were in a different situation (say they could afford to), but for now (and maybe forever) are accepting the fact that they wont have them. Some people just want a group to fit into and later, if their friend-group changes, theyd want a kid to fit in with that group (Ive certainly known a couple of people like that).

Let me stress again that I dont mind anyone who I might deem not truly childfree hanging around childfree boards or social groups. My only requirements for childfree groups is that a) no one get offended at every little thing childfree people say, b) if they have/want kids, dont talk about them, and c) participate in activities without kids. My whole point is that if you hear someone claim they USED to be childfree, they probably fell into one of those groups, and the truth is, they hung out with childfree people, but werent really childfree themselves.

And dont forget there are posers who hang in the childfree community because they regret their kids, or they want to try and discredit the childfree community by posting inflammatory stuff so they can run back to their parenting boards and say, Look what some evil childfree person wrote! And those posers just as likely to pose as formerly childfree, too.

What it all boils down to is this: When I tell people Im childfree, I often get, My sister used to be childfree, too! She changed her mind and so will you! Thats not fair. Her sister really wasnt childfree. I AM. Im not going to change my mind and I dont appreciate her sister making it harder for the rest of us.

So what are the benefits of being childfree?

Its good you asked, because I wasted a lot of time making an amusing page just for that. Benefits of Childfreedom

So why are YOU childfree, Phoena?

I have never had the desire to have kids. Ever. Just like I have never had the desire to have a formal wedding, be a lawyer, or do drugs. I have zero interest in any of that. You could list the benefits all day long of how wonderful formal weddings are, great job perks of being a lawyer, or how doing drugs has made your life grand, but I still have no desire to do it. Go ahead and do those things if you want to. I just dont see the point of doing those things.

My childfree mantra is:

I would not like them in a box. I would not like them with a fox. I would not like them in a house. I would not like them with a mouse. I would not like kids here or there. I would not like them anywhere!!

But the real question isnt, Why dont you want kids? but rather, Why the heck do you care, anyway?

Read this article:

Happily Childfree - Children's Health Health Care Blog

It’s a free speech clash as Milo Yiannopoulos is shut down at …

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Danzig

Angry protests Wednesday night at UC Berkeley forced the cancellation of a talk by conservative firebrand and Donald Trump supporterMilo Yiannopoulos on Wednesday.

That sparked criticism from President Trump, who said on Twitter: If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?

Trumps tweet heightens a debate already roiling the University of California over free speech, hate speech and what to do aboutYiannopoulos.

Heres a look at the free speech issues and what we know about how vulnerable funding could be:

Yiannopoulos campus talks have generated protests and anger from students and faculty, but top UC officials have generally said they believe he has a right to speak.

Less than a month before the events in Berkeley, protesters at UC Davis prevented him from speaking on their campus.

Some in the university said both cancellations were a blow to free speech and thatYiannopoulos should be allowed to be heard, no matter how offensive his views are.

Opponents of Yiannopoulos say he is a provocateur who has no place on campus.

At Berkeley, a letter by adozen faculty members argued that his talk could be canceled on the grounds that his actions which they called harassment, slander, defamation and hate speech violated UC Berkeleys code of conduct.

UC President Janet Napolitanoand the Board of Regents have advocated fighting offensive speech with more speech rather than censorship. This concept was included in Principles AgainstIntoleranceapproved by UC regents last year as guidelinesfor the 10-campus system. Campus administrators are counseling a similar approach to those urging a ban on Yiannopoulos.

Some free-speech advocates have cited cases similar toYiannopoulos.

Berkeley allowed African American student organizations to sponsor a 2012 campus visit by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has been widely accused of anti-Semitism, racism and homophobia.

The UC president at the time, Mark Yudof, denounced Farrakhans message, but defended his right to speak.

UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof on Thursday condemned this weeksviolence and said that campus officials went to"extraordinarylengths" over weeks of planningto helpthe Berkeley College Republicans prepare for the event.

"We thoroughly condemn the violence and lawless behavior, and we deeply regret that the actions of a few trampled on the 1st Amendment rights of others," he said.

Very dependent.

The UCs total budget generally runs well over $20 billion, but several billion of that comes directly from the federal government.

Federal funds are the universitys single most important source of support for research, generating $2.8 billion and accounting for nearly 51% of all university research expenditures in 2013-14,according to a UC report.While UC researchers receive support from virtually all federal agencies, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation are the two largest sponsors, accounting for nearly 80% of UCs federal research contract and grant awards.

UC, for example, manages the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which gets more than $700 million in federal funds, that report said.

Its hard to know whether Trumps tweet was actually suggesting a policy change or simply commenting on the protests at Berkeley.

But it would likely be hard to segregate much of federal funding from just one university given that it involves programs that provide money to many different institutions and activities.

As for federal student aid, UC got more than $1.6 billion in 2014. The UCs medical facilities got $2.8 billion in federal money.

Yiannopoulos, 32, writes for Breitbart News a popular website among the far right and he is an avowed supporter of President Trump. Hes also a flamboyant provocateur who has been denounced for propagating racism, misogyny and anti-Islam views, but hestyles himself a champion of free speech.

This summer, he gained notoriety for encouraginga barrage of harassment against Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones, which prompted Twitter to ban him from the social media platform.

Controversy, unrest and, occasionally, violence has followed his speaking tour at colleges across the U.S., for which Berkeley was to be the final event. Last month, aman was shot outside aUniversity of Washingtonhallwhere Yiannopouloswas scheduled to speak.

At theUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukeerecently, according to atranscript of his remarks that appeared on the Breitbart website, he mocked a transgender student by name for filing a Title IX complaint about bathroom access. He also said:

Black Lives Matteris the ultimate divisive movement.

If white privilege is a thing, why are people working so hard to be black? All of the award shows and cultural events favor black culture.

Man up is a big no-no for liberals, intent on eliminating masculinity from our culture. Toxic masculinity and rape culture and all the other idiotic things they like to say in their war against men.

Wednesdays decision by Berkeley officials is the second time in two weeks thatrowdy protests have forced the cancellation of one of his lectures.UC Davisalso canceled one of his speeches last month.

The cancellation of his talk at UC Davis sparked debate about the limits of free speech and hate speech.Davis College Republicans decided it was unsafe to continue the eventafter a large number of protesters blocked access to the venue, according to a release from the school.

UC Davis interim Chancellor Ralph Hexter said he was deeply disappointed by the protests and the cancellation and said he worriedthat outside groups are using college campuses to trigger conflicts intended for the national stage.

I get very, very alarmed with folks who don't treat [freedom of speech] for the treasure that it is, he said two weeks ago.

So far, the UC system has resisted calls to cancel Yiannopoulos talks. At noon, just hours before Wednesdays event, Berkeley administrators issued a statement saying they were committed to tolerance as well as free speech.

In the weeks before Yiannopoulos planned Berkeley appearance, administrators received hundreds of letters from faculty, students and others demanding they bar him from speaking.

ALSO

Trump suggests cutting funds to UC Berkeley after protests force speech cancellation

'So far I couldn't be happier.' Red California backs Trump, sees protests as overreaction

'I can see the fear': multicultural Los Angeles senses a different world under Trump

UPDATES:

1:15 p.m.: The story hasbeen updated with remarksYiannopoulosmade in Wisconsin in December.

9a.m.: This story has been updated with comments from a UC Berkeley spokesman.

This article was originally published at 8:05 a.m.

See original here:

It's a free speech clash as Milo Yiannopoulos is shut down at ...

Benefits of Genetic Engineering – Buzzle

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Danzig

The genes present in the body of all living organisms helps determine the organism's habits. Genetic engineering is defined as a set of technologies that are used to change the genetic makeup of cells and move the genes from one species to another to produce new organisms. The techniques used are highly sophisticated manipulations of genetic material and other biologically important chemicals.

What are the Benefits of Genetic Engineering

Human Cloning: Almost everyday, a scientist makes a new breakthrough in the field of human engineering. Mammals have been successfully cloned and the human genome project has been completed. This is pushing the scientists all over the world to research many different facets of human genetic engineering. These researches have allowed a better understanding of DNA and its role in medicine, pharmacology, reproductive technology and various other fields. The scientists at Roslin Institute in Scotland, cloned an exact copy of a sheep, named 'Dolly'. Newly created animals by the process of genetic engineering are known as xenographs.

Medical Treatment: In humans, the most promising benefit of genetic engineering is gene therapy which is the medical treatment of a disease wherein the defective genes are repaired and replaced or therapeutic genes are introduced to fight the disease. Over the past decade, many autoimmune and heart diseases have been treated using gene therapy. Certain diseases like the Huntington's disease, ALS and cystic fibrosis is caused by defective genes. There is hope that a cure for such diseases can be found by either inserting the corrected gene or modifying the defective gene. Eventually, the hope is to completely eliminate genetic diseases and also treat non-genetic diseases with appropriate gene therapy. The latest research in the field makes it possible to repair or grow new muscle cells when they are not working or are damaged.

Pharmaceuticals: Thanks to genetic engineering, the pharmaceutical products available today are far superior to their predecessors. These new products are created by cloning certain genes. Some of the prominent examples are the bio-engineered insulin which was earlier obtained from sheep or cows and the human growth hormone which was earlier obtained from cadavers. New medicines are being made by changing the genetic structure of the plant cell.

Pregnancy Cases: Genetic engineering is also a boon for pregnant women who can choose to have their fetuses screened for genetic defects. These screenings can help the parents and doctors prepare for the arrival of the child who may have special needs during or after the delivery. A possible future benefit of genetic engineering which is very eagerly awaited is that a fetus with a genetic defect could be treated with genetic therapy even before it is born. Research is going on for gene therapy for embryos before it is implanted into the mother via in-vitro fertilization. The latest term coined is 'Designer Babies' wherein the couple can actually choose the features of the baby to be born!

Agriculture: The field of agriculture too greatly benefits from genetic engineering which has improved the genetic fitness of various plant species. The common benefits are increase in the efficiency of photosynthesis, increasing the resistance of the plant to salinity, drought and viruses and also reducing the plant's need for a nitrogen fertilizer. The latest research at Cornell University is to map the 'Oat' crop so that extra nutrients can be added to the sequence and the make the crop healthier. Similar research is done with the 'Soya' crop as well.

Here is a list of some of the most upfront benefits of genetic engineering:

Global High Seas Marine Preserve A non-profit dedicted …

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Danzig

Either humans will solve the ocean crisis they created or nature will provide the unthinkable solution for them, Danny Quintana, Founder GHSMP & Author ofSpace & Ocean Exploration: The Alternative to the Military-Industrial Complex

Click Here to Join the GHSMP Earth Day Boycott to Stop Industrial & Commercial Fishing on the High Seas

The Problem, Fish Stocks Collapsing and Ocean Ecosystems in Peril: There is little exaggeration in the notion that major fisheries around the world might collapse as top-of-the-food-chain marine predators like tuna, sharks and whales are being fished out of existence by industrial fishing that scoops up the desired prey while discarding millions of tons of various marine creatures called by-catch. Upwards of 100-million sharks are slaughtered annually for their fins, often cut off while they are alive, for sale in Asian countries who consider Shark Fin Soup a delicacy. When writing Space & Ocean Exploration, Danny Quintanas central premise of diverting U.S. Defense Dept. spending to space and ocean exploration also included the U.S. Navy being involved in the solution to this crisis, as explained in the solutions section below.

The disappearance of top marine predators, since it appears nature cant keep up with modern day hunters, will ultimately result in ocean ecosystem collapse as the ocean ecosystem balance provided by these vital creatures vanishes. Consequences from such a fate cant be predicted by even the most prescient because it may involve mass starvation, economic collapse, political chaos and armed conflict. Technology has increased the ability of cruise ship size trawlers to decimate ocean wildlife like never before.

Regional efforts have achieved success in regulating fishing industries, but international waters have no limitations and large and small fishing vessels, many seeking species deemed endangered, are operating throughout the world. Considering the economic value of some species, like Bluefin Tuna and shark fins, this is not a surprising development.

Banning industrial and illegal fishing on the high seas will require aggressive enforcement and Danny Quintana advocates having the U.S. Navy take the lead with other national maritime military organizations to patrol the high seas.

E.B. GO Vision Media Radio Show & Podcast Video Playlist of Danny Quintana onthe Global High Seas Marine Preserve Saving the Oceans & Marine Life

Click on Grid Top Left of Screen for Pop Out Menu

If we continue with business as usual, I am afraid that the fish stocks will completely collapse. Closing the high seas to fishing is about 60 percent of the oceans. This would benefit all countries. The catch would improve so it would make it that the fish stocks are healthier and therefore larger catch, Dr. Daniel Pauly, Marine Biologist, Former Director Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia.Click Here to Learn More About Dr. Pauly

The Solutions is to Ban Industrial Fishing While Promoting Sustainable Seafood Sources:

The Global High Seas Marine Preserveorganization has two primary goals, as stated above, that branch out into political action, consumer education, grass roots activist efforts and determined campaigns involving major media and Internet exposure.

Danny Quintana, in his book Space & Ocean Exploration, advocated for amending theLaws of the Seas Treaty and establish the Global High Seas Marine Preserve that bans industrial harvesting of marine life in international waters so that large top-of-food-chain predators can return in large numbers. Within the scope of diverting U.S. Defense Dept. spending for ocean research, he suggests that part of the U.S. Navysmission include enforcement, in conjunction with other nations, of the industrial fishing ban in international waters. It must be a group effort or the ban will never hold, the oceans are too big and people will take risks if the payoff is enticing enough.

GHSMPs 50 Sustainable Seafood Cities Campaign: As part of the overall goal of Saving the Oceans, GHSMP is kicking off a campaign targeting the 50 Largest Cities in the United States in an effort to have them designated as Sustainable Seafood Cities by municipal or county legislatures. This would mean that only seafood products from verifiable sustainable sources can be sold at businesses in those jurisdictions.

This campaign targets the demand side of the seafood equation which will in turn help with the supply side campaign of banning industrial fishing in international waters. A traditional political action effort alongside a massive Internet PR Campaign created by E.B. GO Vision Medias Social Media Army and Content Creation Team (SMACCT), under the aegis of the GHSMP Board of Directors, will result in a multi-pronged effort to educate and motivate the public and politicians.

The Situation by Danny Quintana

Fish are the main protein source for a one-third of all humanity, about 2.2 billion people. Several of the foundations the Global High Seas Marine Preserve is asking to get involved with us work with poor countries in developing adequate food resources. The collapse of the fisheries will have a profound effect on the entire planet and create instability in already fragile governments and marine and land ecosystems. Given the problems with unstable governments and chaos in the developing world, everyone in the humanitarian sector has a stake in reducing already vulnerable situations.

Every year over 40-billion pounds of fish and marine mammals are discarded as not sought after bi-catch, truly a fishing industry scandal of immense proportions. This situation is unsustainable and, quite frankly, profoundly immoral. There is no place on Earth not impacted by over fishing. The industrial harvesting of marine life is destroying the wildlife of the oceans while top-of-the-food-chain predators have declined over 90 percent.

A number of studies predict fish as food will run out by 2048, however, this is happening at a much faster rate because the worlds human population increases by about 80 to 100 million annually. Since 1970 half of the worlds wild fish have been slaughtered. In this short 45-year span the worlds population has increased from 4-billion to 7.4 billion, and by 2050 hit an astounding 9-billion hungry people.

If industrial harvesting of marine life continues apace the worlds great fishing grounds will soon be devoid of life and collapse as sustainable ecosystems. Should a worse case scenario unfold then billions of people, many from undeveloped countries or small island nations who depend on the oceans for food and money, will starve to death all over the world.

A man-made genocidal disaster of Biblical proportions will be the result of Mans folly.Governments will fall, economic dislocation will reverberate in every part of the world, violence and war will break out in the fight for resources and the developed nations will hunker down to survive.

All of us have the same data. We are all well aware of what shark-finning and bi-catch as well as commercial fishing is doing to the oceans.The question really is, what are we going to do about it? Without closing off the High Seas to commercial fishing, which is the primary goal of the Global High Seas Marine Preserve, the fisheries globally will not recover.

The fisheries are not on the edge of collapse, they are in the midst of the collapse that has already seen the tipping point long ago, has already reached a state of being akin to a patient in a coma, strapped to a respirator with the doctor shaking his head. Now doctors are often wrong, and if bold action and a new way of thinking is embraced then it just might be possible to snatch survival from the jaws of terminus.

The ocean is not limitless. There is a growing awareness among younger people about the collapse of the fisheries. Young people should be concerned. They know it is their future and they dont want the fish stocks to collapse.

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Global High Seas Marine Preserve A non-profit dedicted ...

Best Private Islands: Belize’s Cayo Espanto

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Danzig

Which of your offerings do you think best celebrates the authentic island culture? Situated just off the coast of Belize, Cayo strives to incorporate local culture into their offerings as much as possible. The chef incorporates local ingredients and traditional dishes whenever the opportunity arises and they coordinate tours to explore the nearby ancient Mayan ruins. The massage therapists at Cayo Espanto have even created a unique massage tailored to the needs of soon-to-be mothers, with elements drawn from the local Mayan culture. What do you think makes Cayo Espanto unique among all the world's private-island resorts?Again, the level of service and attentiveness -- the staff makes it their priority to grant any wish or whim. If a guest wants to celebrate Christmas on the island, they will do their best to fly in a tree for them. They've had visitors who requested smoked salmon, but since it's not readily available in Belize, the chef built a smoker and smoked it himself. Additionally, the island's location allows guests to feel like they are miles away from civilization, but the island is close enough to the main land that guests can go in for day trips and they have access to a number of activities including golf, fishing and diving at the Blue Hole, just to name a few. To find out more information and book your stay, visit aprivateisland.com. For more private islands, click here.

See the original post:

Best Private Islands: Belize's Cayo Espanto

Urban Dictionary: entheogen

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Danzig

A term derived from the Greek 'entheos', directly translated to mean having "God (theos) within" or more loosely translated as "inspired" and 'genesthe' meaning "to generate". 'Entheos' was typically used to describe poets, musicians and other artists who were believed to receive their gifts from the divine. The word entheogen thus exposes itself as meaning "that which generates God/the divine in a person". The term was first coined in 1979 as a replacement for 'psychedelic' and 'hallucinogen' which both carry with them certain denigrating connotations. The cultures of those who use psychoactives that fall within the category of entheogen (or enthnobotanical, a related term which refers specifically to psychoactive plants) and those who use such substances for 'recreational' or secular uses are in some cases, strongly at ends, and in others allied. Entheogen is a term to be used in strict reverence of substances that act as divine sacraments and facilitate transcendent experiences.

I participated in the ritual use of the entheogen, Mescaline/Peyote when I went on a spirit walk at the Peyote Way Church in Arizona.

Lotsa space for your liquids.

Your favorite word on a white mug.

One side has the word, one side has the definition. Microwave and dishwasher safe. Lotsa space for your liquids.

Soft and offensive. Just like you.

Smooth, soft, slim fit American Apparel shirt. Custom printed. 100% fine jersey cotton, except for heather grey (90% cotton).

'God within us', those plant substances that, when ingested, give one a divine experience, in the past commonly called 'hallucinogens', 'psychedelics', 'psychotomimetics', etc etc, to each of which serious objections can be made. A group headed by the Greek scholar Carl A.P. Ruck advances 'entheogen' as fully filling the need, notably catching the rich cultural resonances evoked by the substances, many of them fungal, over vast areas of the world in proto- and prehistory. See Journal of Psychedelic Drugs Vol 11.1-2, 1979, pp 145-6. We favor the adoption of this word. Early Man, throughout much of Eurasia and the Americas, discovered the properties of these substances and regarded them with profound respect and even awe, hedging them about with bonds of secrecy. We are now rediscovering the secret and we should treat the 'entheogens' with the respect to which they were richly entitled. As we undertake to explore their role in the early history of religions, we should call them by a name unvulgarized by hippy abuse."

Side note - an example is pretty obsolete, as the only people that actually use the word in every day conversation are wankers;)but if you have too, its pretty interchangable with hallucinogen or psychedelic (within the terms of the definition above

Lotsa space for your liquids.

Your favorite word on a white mug.

One side has the word, one side has the definition. Microwave and dishwasher safe. Lotsa space for your liquids.

Soft and offensive. Just like you.

Smooth, soft, slim fit American Apparel shirt. Custom printed. 100% fine jersey cotton, except for heather grey (90% cotton).

A drug used to bring about spiritual connections.

We ate some entheogens and saw jesus.

Lotsa space for your liquids.

Your favorite word on a white mug.

One side has the word, one side has the definition. Microwave and dishwasher safe. Lotsa space for your liquids.

Soft and offensive. Just like you.

Smooth, soft, slim fit American Apparel shirt. Custom printed. 100% fine jersey cotton, except for heather grey (90% cotton).

Generally used in place of "psychedelics" or "hallucinogens" by wannabe Hippies playing as much semantics as the Bush administration.

Actual shaman probably would laugh at the people who call hallucinogens this term because physical and psychological trials usually accompany the ingestion of hallucinogenic substances in shamanistic cultures and these people just sit in the comfort of their air conditioned parents' house and think they're getting in touch with the divine.

Used by people with no knowledge of anthropology and those who would probably be considered Orientalists by those who don't live in Western societies.

Funny how white people say entheogen s are a pathway to god when there is no definitive proof for the existence of a deity and most indigenous societies don't use psychedelics.

Lotsa space for your liquids.

Your favorite word on a white mug.

One side has the word, one side has the definition. Microwave and dishwasher safe. Lotsa space for your liquids.

Soft and offensive. Just like you.

Smooth, soft, slim fit American Apparel shirt. Custom printed. 100% fine jersey cotton, except for heather grey (90% cotton).

Urban Dictionary: entheogen

Technology – Pogue’s Posts Blog – The New York Times

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Danzig

David Pogue, Times Technology Columnist, Leaves for Yahoo |

After writing about personal technology for The Times for 13 years, David Pogue will start a consumer technology Web site at Yahoo. Read more

How will people remember 2013? As the year of the government shutdown? The year the N.S.A. revealed that the enemy is us? The year Miley Cyrus absolutely, positively stopped playing an adorable child actress?

In consumer tech, we may remember this as the year Bluetooth speakers finally outnumbered insects on the earth. Every company and its brother has been cranking out compact, colorful, battery-powered wireless speakers.

And no wonder: these things really are awesome. Every time some company offers a new tablet, laptop or phone, you can bet that it has a better, sharper, brighter screen but what about the sound? Its stuck in 2004: tinny and weak. A Bluetooth speaker neatly remedies that enormous quality difference between audio and visual.

The Jawbone Jambox was one of the earliest hits. Its a sharp-edged rectangular box, $150, that comes in a choice of colors. It pumps out surprisingly loud, clear sound for its size, which is 6 by 1.6 by 2.8 inches.

Then came the Big Jambox, a shoebox-size $300 version with big enough sound for a backyard.

And now comes the Jambox Mini, at $180.

I love this thing. Its actually not all that mini; in fact, its about as long and tall as the original (6.1 by 2.3 inches) but it looks like someone sliced the original in half with a saber. Readmore

Back in March, T-Mobile burned every possible bridge it had with the other cellphone carriers. As I wrote then, it eliminated the two-year contract; you can now quit T-Mobile whenever you like.

It also became the first carrier to eliminate the infuriating 15-second recording of voicemail instructions every time you try to leave a message a waste of your time and your callers airtime.

And T-Mobile also ended the Great Cellphone Subsidy Con. Thats where you buy a $600 phone (like the iPhone) for $200, with the understanding that youll pay the cellphone company the rest over your two-year contract yet after youve repaid it, your monthly bill doesnt drop!

T-Mobile was basically prancing around, demonstrating that Emperors Verizon, Sprint and AT&T have no clothes.

I was pleasantly surprised shocked, really since those con games have been baked into the American cellphone carriers business plans for years. And we, the American sheep, just assumed that we had to accept them.

Apparently, lots of other people were pleasantly surprised, too. The company says that in the second quarter of 2013, it signed up 685,000 new customers more than Verizon, AT&T and Sprint combined.

Well, on Wednesday, T-Mobile did it again. It announced an even bigger shocker: Starting next month, it will eliminate the sky-high, nosebleed, ridiculous, usurious international roaming charges that have terrified and enraged overseas travelers for years. Readmore

If its October, that must mean the holiday buying season has begun and that means Amazon will offer a new color tablet.

Its the Kindle Fire HDX. It costs $230, and its terrific. The battery goes for about 11 hours, or 17 in a power-saving, reading-only mode. The stereo speakers sound great. The plastic case weighs less than the prior version and has narrower margins around the screen. Theres a mediocre camera on the front for video chatting (not on the back on the 7-inch model). The one big misfire was putting the power and volume keys on the back; youll spend the first week hitting the Off button by mistake while trying to turn it up the sound.

The X in HDX is a reference to the screens clarity. It packs in 323 tiny dots per inch, making it sharper than high definition, and making the iPad Minis 163 dots per inch look coarse.

The HDXs screen really is spectacular, if infuriatingly reflective. The trouble is, you can see the new sharpness only when youre looking at source material with resolution that high. The type in books and magazines looks razor-sharp, but most of the 150,000 TV shows and videos in Amazons catalog dont look any clearer. Movies are also the wrong shape for the screen; you see black bands above and below. Readmore

Well, that didnt take long. Only a couple of days after Apples iPhone 5s went on sale, somebody managed to fool its fingerprint sensor.

The headlines and blog comments were predictable and instantaneous: Oooooh, Apple blew it! The star feature of its new phone is worthless!

Ill admit it: I love that darned sensor. You unlock your phone dozens of times a day. Each time is a few seconds of tedium and looking down at it, over and over and over, to enter your password. Its a drag.

And then there are the 50 percent of iPhone users who dont even bother with a password. If youre among them, then your phone and your life are susceptible to snooping should you lose your phone, find it stolen or leave it on your desk while you get coffee.

On the iPhone 5s, you wake the phone by pressing the Home button and then just leave your finger on it for half a second, and boom: it unlocks.

But should we be concerned, then, that the hackers exploits render the fingerprint reader useless?

Not at all. For three giant reasons. Readmore

Updated to clarify how to access the Spotlight search screen.

The big Apple news this week might seem to be the new iPhones. But truth be told, the bigger news is iOS 7.

This is the free software update for iPhones (iPhone 4 and later), iPads (iPad 2 and later) and iPod Touches (fifth generation). Its a radical, huge redesign. Its master architect was Jonathan Ive, the Apple designer who has brought us astonishing hardware designs for many years; now, for the first time, hes been put in charge of a whole software universe.

The look of iOS 7 is sparse, white almost plain in spots. No more fake leather, fake woodgrain, fake green felt, fake yellow note paper. Its all blue Helvetica Neue against white.

The complete absence of graphic embellishments makes it especially utilitarian in both senses of the word. Thats good, because whatever button or function you need is easier to find; its bad, because, well, it can look a little boring.

Then again, the new look is primarily visible at the Home screen, where a jarringly different color palette greets you on the Apple app icons, and on the options screen. The rest of the time, youll be using your regular apps, many of which will look no different than before.

The look of iOS 7 may grab you or not. But once the fuss about the visuals dies down, something even more important comes into focus: the work thats been done on making iOS better. The longer you spend with the new OS, the more youre grateful for the fixing and de-annoyifying on display. Readmore

Technology and air travel have always gone hand in hand, and theyre only getting more intertwined. From security at the airport to the rules about using electronics in flight to the final resting place of the planes toilet contents, airplanes and tech are a constant source of conflict, passion and questions.

If youd like the answers, I highly recommend Patrick Smiths new book, Cockpit Confidential. Mr. Smith is a pilot and blogger; much of the books format and contents are on display at his Web site, AskThePilot.com, or in the archives of the Ask the Pilot column he wrote for Salon.com for years.

But as a frequent flyer, Id much rather have the book, which is a far more comprehensive book of questions and answers about airplanes, airports, airlines and the psychology of flying. Here are some excerpts factoids that every flier should know: Readmore

Tuesday morning, Apple caught up to its own rumor mill. It took the wraps off the two new iPhones that everyone had already predicted: the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S, which will be available on Sept. 20.

The 5C is the budget model. Its basically last years iPhone 5 but with a plastic body (lacquered for extra shininess!), available in five colors. It will be $100 with a two-year contract.

The more exciting new phone is the iPhone 5S. It looks almost identical to the iPhone 5, except that its available in black, white or a classy-looking coppery gold. Its priced the same as last years model, too: $200, $300 and $400 for the models with 16, 32 and 64 gigabytes of storage.

Inside, though, theres a new processor, which Apple says is twice as fast as before. Its also the cellphone worlds first 64-bit processor, according to the company, which is an especially attractive feature for game makers; it can load in new scenes five times faster than the previous chip. Readmore

Everybody loves to hate e-mail. It eats up too much time, its used improperly, its filled up with junk. Entire careers have been launched around the premise of getting your in-box to zero.

I dont agree. E-mail is the hub of life. Its correspondence, collaboration, ideas, news, warnings and congratulations. Its a to-do list, Rolodex and record of past projects. Sure, I try to keep the roar of junk mail to a minimum (I use a program called SpamSieve, and I never, ever enter my primary e-mail address into a form on the Web). But otherwise, e-mail is a pretty great medium.

Maybe, instead of killing it off, the world should be working on making it more useful. A new, free app for iPad and iPhone, bizarrely called PeeqPeeq, is a good start. Readmore

By now, perhaps youve heard: Microsoft just bought Nokias cellphone division for $7.2 billion.

When I mentioned the news last night on Twitter (Im @pogue), my followers were hilariously unimpressed:

Its all snarky but true. What on earth was Steve Ballmer, the departing Microsoft chief, thinking? What is the point of this deal? Readmore

When Im filming a TV series, like the shows I host for PBS, I have to fly a lot. Over the last four years, Ive honed the art of efficient air travel to a sparkling shine.

I could publish my accumulated wisdom in a small book and sell literally dozens of copies. But no: I selflessly offer them to you here, for free.

* Check in with the airline app. If you have your airlines free app on your phone, you can check in ahead of time, even the night before, and save yourself the worry of getting to the airport an hour before the flight.

At that point, the app can also display the bar code representing your boarding pass. No paper. Just set your phone face down on the little T.S.A. scanner, and youre through. Not all airlines have the bar code scanners, but the app will let you know ahead of time. Readmore

From todays mailbag:

Dear Mr. Pogue:

Three years ago, my husband suffered an accident and is now a quadriplegic. He can never be alone without a reliable fully voice-activated phone.

As you pointed out in your column this week, with Android, you have to swipe the screen to reach the mike button, and with the first iteration of Siri, you also had to push the home button all impossible for a quad to do. We bought a Blue Ant device a few years back, which worked nicely (sometimes) with his old HTC. When the phone was last updated, that was the end of a beautiful relationship. I spent hours with both Blue Ant and HTC, and both blamed the other and neither had a solution.

So what do you suggest?

While youre at it: The command to terminate a call doesnt exist yet. When your call goes into voice mail, you cant hang up by a voice command; you must physically terminate the call. We have discussed this problem with multiple brain trusts and no one has the solution yet.

My reply:

Unfortunately, Im afraid I havent done any research on this problem in particular. But the Moto X, as I mentioned in my review, is listening for voice commands all the time you dont have to touch it to start issuing commands.

Among the many Android apps, perhaps theres one that lets you hang up with a voice command?

Ill ask my blog readers. Maybe they know of some solutions!

Moments of Steven A. Ballmer from conferences, commercials and interviews over the years that he was Microsofts chief executive.

By now, youve probably heard: Steven A. Ballmer will soon be stepping down as chief executive of Microsoft.

Its supposedly a voluntary retirement, but that holds about as much credibility as a public officials leaving a job to spend more time with family. Microsoft has been flailing, and many prominent voices have been calling for Mr. Ballmer to step aside.

Many of the factors in his departure stock price, internal politics, shareholder pressure, public relations arent my area of expertise. Im a tech critic, a reviewer of products. But even from my particular angle of examination, Mr. Ballmers time as the head of Microsoft has been baffling. Readmore

I get lots and lots of e-mail. I reply to as much as I can but certain categories, Ill tell you right now, I cant answer. What should I buy? questions, Solve my technical problems questions or Endorse my book, app or product requests. I hope its obvious that theres no way I could answer all of those.

Im increasingly convinced, however, that there should be a consumer technology complaint columnist. Many of my correspondents write to complain about problems theyre having with some product, company or service, and theyd like me to shame the perpetrators by writing about them.

Here are the sorts of things people write about:

Ive been an enthusiastic user on my iPhone of CoPilot, a GPS navigation program. Recently I noticed that one of the modules for giving text directions would pop off, leaving me with just the map. I decided to re-download the app, now updated. I quickly found out that the new version would not work with my older iOS 5.1 operating system and required iOS 6.

I do not argue that they have a need to update their version in tandem with Apple. But to not support old-time users with the ability to re-install a previous version, is rude and a poor encouragement to brand loyalty.

Alas, the rapid appearance of new versions is simply the cost of playing the software game. As Im fond of saying, buying a software program is more like paying membership dues than buying a vase and owning it. Unfortunately, that seems to be the way the world works. Readmore

A few weeks back, I wrote about special lenses that were developed to give doctors a clearer view of veins and vasculature, bruising, cyanosis, pallor, rashes, erythema, and other variations in blood O2 level, and concentration, especially in bright light.

But these lenses turned out to have an unintended side effect: they may cure red-green colorblindness.

Im severely red-green colorblind, so I was eager to try these $300 lenses. Turns out they didnt help me; the company said that my colorblindness is too severe. They have helped many others, though (their Amazon reviews makes that clear).

After my column appeared, I heard from another company that makes color-enhancing glasses this time, specifically for red-green colorblind folks. The companys called EnChroma, and the EnChroma Cx sunglasses are a heartbeat-skipping $600 a pair.

Our lenses are specifically designed to address color blindness, the company wrote to me, and utilize a 100+ layer dielectric coating we engineered for this precise purpose by keeping the physiology of the eyes of colorblind people in mind.

I asked to try out a pair. (You can, too: theres a 30-day money-back guarantee.) Readmore

The rest is here:

Technology - Pogue's Posts Blog - The New York Times

Nanotechnology News – phys.org

Posted on February 2, 2017 by Danzig

Semiconducting nanonetwork could form the backbone of transparent, flexible electronics

(Phys.org)Researchers may have found a "sweet spot" for organic electronics by fabricating a new 2D semiconducting polymer-blended nanonetwork material that simultaneously achieves excellent charge mobility, high flexibility, ...

(Phys.org)Researchers have brought electrides into the nanoregime by synthesizing the first 2D electride material. Electrides are ionic compounds, which are made of negative and positive ions. But in electrides, the negative ...

Solar cells made with films mimicking the structure of the mineral perovskite are the focus of worldwide research. But only now have researchers at Case Western Reserve University directly shown the films bear a key property ...

Defects and jagged surfaces at the edges of nanosized platinum and gold particles are key hot spots for chemical reactivity, a team of researchers working at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ...

Researchers have demonstrated the high-performance potential of an experimental transistor made of a semiconductor called beta gallium oxide, which could bring new ultra-efficient switches for applications such as the power ...

Carbon nanotubes have made headlines in scientific journals for a long time, as has 3D printing. But when both combine with the right polymer, in this case a thermoplastic, something special occurs: electrical conductivity ...

A team of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has advanced gallium nitride (GaN)-on-silicon transistor technology by optimizing the composition of the semiconductor layers that make up the device. ...

A team of researchers at MIT has designed one of the strongest lightweight materials known, by compressing and fusing flakes of graphene, a two-dimensional form of carbon. The new material, a sponge-like configuration with ...

(Phys.org)An international team of researchers has developed a transistor that can be stretched to twice its length and still maintain most of its conductivity. As the group notes in their paper published in the journal ...

With a storied history that includes more than a half-century of research, a Nobel Prize, and multiple attempts at practical applications, the story of negative differential resistanceor NDRreads like a scientific mystery, ...

Theoretical physicists at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory used computer simulations to show how special light pulses could create robust channels where electricity flows without resistance ...

In a microscopic feat that resembled a high-wire circus act, Johns Hopkins researchers have coaxed DNA nanotubes to assemble themselves into bridge-like structures arched between two molecular landmarks on the surface of ...

Many diagnostic tests use antibodies to help confirm a myriad of medical conditions, from Zika infections to heart ailments and even some forms of cancer. Antibodies capture and help detect proteins, enzymes, bacteria and ...

By suspending tiny metal nanoparticles in liquids, Duke University scientists are brewing up conductive ink-jet printer "inks" to print inexpensive, customizable circuit patterns on just about any surface.

A few nanoscale adjustments may be all that is required to make graphene-nanotube junctions excel at transferring heat, according to Rice University scientists.

PARK Je-Geun, Associate Director at the Center for Correlated Electron Systems and collaborators have demonstrated the magnetic behavior of a special class of 2-D materials. This is the first experimental proof to a theory ...

In order to create new nanomaterial technologies such as next-generation lighting, fundamental challenges underpinning the science and engineering of nanoparticles must be resolved. For example, many proposed technologies ...

Germanium may not be a household name like silicon, its group-mate on the periodic table, but it has great potential for use in next-generation electronics and energy technology.

Traffic modeling has been of interest to mathematicians since the 1950s. Research in the area has only grown as road traffic control presents an ever-increasing problem.

For proteins, this would be the equivalent of the red-carpet treatment: each protein belonging to the complex machinery of ribosomescomponents of the cell that produce proteinshas its own chaperone to guide it to the ...

Northwestern University researchers studying the gut bacteria of Scott and Mark Kelly, NASA astronauts and identical twin brothers, as part of a unique human study have found that changes to certain gut "bugs" occur in space.

Human activity and development are correlated with reduced carbon storage in wetland soils, a new study published in Nature Communications shows.

Entropy, the measure of disorder in a physical system, is something that physicists understand well when systems are at equilibrium, meaning there's no external force throwing things out of kilter. But new research by Brown ...

We're all pretty familiar with what happens when we sustain a knock on the head: First, the all-too-audible crack, accompanied perhaps by a moment of surprise. Then, the swelling and, if we're lucky, just a minor bump or ...

Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have invented a new technique for constructing chiral drug molecules.

Decades ago Mexico City's air pollution was so poor, birds would fall out of the skydead. Locals said living there was like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, according to one report. In response, Mexico City took ...

The "decentralized" water system at the Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL) at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, which treats all non-potable water on site, contributes to the net-zero building's recognition ...

New research indicates that Baltic hunter-gatherers were not swamped by migrations of early agriculturalists from the Middle East, as was the case for the rest of central and western Europe. Instead, these people probably ...

A recently discovered solitary ice volcano on the dwarf planet Ceres may have some hidden older siblings, say scientists who have tested a likely way such mountains of icy rock - called cryovolcanoes - might disappear over ...

Researchers have discovered a new efficient way to generate thyroid cells, known as thyrocytes, using genetically modified embryonic stem cells.

(Phys.org)A combined team of researchers from several institutions in Japan has found evidence that suggests Pluto's distinctive red spot may have developed after a massive collision with a comet or other object. In their ...

(Phys.org)A trio of researchers with the University of Bern in Switzerland has found that at least one species of fish communicates with others of its kind using chemicals in its urine. In their paper published in the ...

A low level of atmospheric oxygen in Earth's middle ages held back evolution for 2 billion years, raising fresh questions about the origins of life on this planet.

Donald Trump's surprising election as president of the United States was viewed by some people as evidence that electoral polling no longer works, but researchers report they have developed models using global polling data ...

(Phys.org)A team of researchers with the University of Bristol has found that differences in behavioral traits among ants help when it comes to finding a new nestat least with rock ants. In their paper published in ...

A group of scientists led by Johannes Fink from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria) reported the first experimental observation of a first-order phase transition in a dissipative quantum system. ...

When it comes to solar power, storing electricity as fuel would let that energy work on dark or stormy days. The challenge is creating a catalyst that can push the reactions to produce a fuel, such as hydrogen, and later ...

Most batteries are composed of two solid, electrochemically active layers called electrodes, separated by a polymer membrane infused with a liquid or gel electrolyte. But recent research has explored the possibility of all-solid-state ...

Citizen scientists and bird lovers across the world have helped researchers at the University of Sheffield and the University of South Florida uncover new secrets about the evolution of bird's beaks over time in a ground-breaking ...

Transparent window coatings that keep buildings and cars cool on sunny days. Devices that could more than triple solar cell efficiencies. Thin, lightweight shields that block thermal detection. These are potential applications ...

Danger from predators causes animals to form stronger friendships, according to new research.

(Phys.org)Discovering the ways in which many seemingly diverse phenomena are related is one of the overarching goals of scientific inquiry, since universality often allows an insight in one area to be extended to many ...

An international team, led by a scientist from the University of Sussex, have today unveiled the first practical blueprint for how to build a quantum computer, the most powerful computer on Earth.

(Phys.org)Astronomers have detected the presence of water molecules in the atmosphere of a nearby hot Jupiter exoplanet known as 51 Pegasi b (51 Peb b for short). The discovery sheds new light on the nature of the exoworld's ...

A University of Toronto study on uncertainty in scientific research could shed light on anomalies that arose in early attempts to discover the Higgs boson and even how polls failed to predict the outcome of Donald Trump winning ...

Researchers working on ancient DNA extracted from human remains interred almost 8,000 years ago in a cave in the Russian Far East have found that the genetic makeup of certain modern East Asian populations closely resemble ...

Dust released by an active coal mine in Svalbard, Norway, reduced the spectral reflectance of nearby snow and ice by up to 84 percent, according to new University of Colorado Boulder-led research.

In April last year, billionaire Yuri Milner announced the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative. He plans to invest 100 million US dollars in the development of an ultra-light light sail that can be accelerated to 20 percent of ...

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Nanotechnology News - phys.org

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