Monthly Archives: November 2016

Food Research; 100% Whole Food Supplements for Healthcare …

Posted: November 29, 2016 at 1:27 am

Food Research; 100% Whole Food Supplements for Healthcare Professionals

Food Research International is Caribbean company dedicated to providing the highest quality nutritional supplements, in a form that is as close as possible to those naturally found in foods. It is well understood by nutrition researchers that we, as humans, should derive nutrition from food. It is our goal at Food Research to provide the best, scientifically researched, natural food supplements which meet the needs of those who live in our "modern" society. Food Research products are environmentally friendly. They are natural food complexes which have been shown to be better for the internal human environment.

Why are Food Research International products the best?

At least 98.97% of vitamins consumed are synthetic isolates, though they are often labeled as natural. Yet, there are no isolated USP nutrients that exist naturally. So, nearly all companies combine synthetic isolates with industrially-processed minerals in order to produce their vitamin-mineral formulas.

Food Research International is different.

None of our products contain any synthetic/isolated USP nutrients.

In order to obtain potencies that members of modern societies need, many of the nutrients in our products are hydroponically-grown to improve the concentration of nutrients in the specific raw foods that we use.

We essentially take advantage of a law of nature that a plant will absorb more of a nutrient when that nutrient in more available. Essentially, the plant is fed an enzyme-containing liquid that will be higher in one particular mineral. The plant will absorb more of that mineral, since more of it is present. The nutrient foods are grown in an FDA registered facility.

In reality we are duplicating the process of nature when we create food nutrients. Nature's process takes inorganic, non-food substances from the soil and delivers them to the cells of the plant. This natural process is the merging of different elements into a union creating one. Creating a whole from different elements is nature in action. The best method of creating a union, like those created by nature, between inorganic fractions and the whole food matrix seems to be utilizing hydroponic technologies.

We wanted to supply the best possible form of nutrients so we looked into modern technologies that would be compatible with the natural life processes that nature uses to improve the nutrients in natural plants.

This led to the acquisition of foods combined with a natural cold fusion process. The definition of fusion is the merging of different elements into a union, creating an enhanced whole from different elements. A natural cold fusion process is used to produce superior nutrients that are always 100% food. Enhanced nutrients occur from the merging of specific elements through a living plant into a whole food matrix through low temperature hydroponic farming. The reason that the process is "cold" is in order to preserve the naturally-occurring enzymes and other beneficial substances in the foods. Many of the processes and equipment had to be custom-made or altered to accommodate our need to maintain the fresh frozen raw foods used to create the usable raw materials. Cold fusion processing was not an after thought. No expense was spared to create these cold fusion processes and the state of the art manufacturing plant needed to keep Food Research International products the best available on the planet.

Furthermore, this form of "cold fusion-hydroponic" farming is pesticide free, and hence the quality of the food nutrients produced this way can be considered superior to conventionally grown foods. After growing, the plant is then harvested and dried.

No Genetically-Modified Organisms (GMO) have ever been found in our nutrient foods upon average analysis (which means none have ever been detected any time that they have been tested for).

These superior foods are also free of artificial colors, preservatives, and similar chemicals. The grown nutrients are also HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) validated. And the nutrient content of each batch is tested for potency.

Food Research International represents the best of all worlds: Real food nutrients, in real foods, with naturally occurring substances (such as enzymes, amino acids, lipids, and/or bioflavonoids) bottled and tested for potency.

100% food nutrients, 100% of the time.

Food Research International your best choice for 100% food nutrients. Additionally, you may view some of the specialized equioment from which Food Research International food nutrients are grown and processed.

We also have the best known refractive drying process of any food nutrients. You may also view information about the drying process.

Who heads up the Food Research? Food Research International Ltd. was intitially headed up by Clyde Skeete, of Barbados. Financial affairs handled by Canadian Barbara Gibbs.

The research group at Food Research consists of a variety of independent research scientists.

One researcher is Robert Thiel, Naturopath who also holds a Ph.D. in nutrition science. He has conducted, and had published, many scientific health studies. Thiel received the Leadership Award from the Orthomolecular Health Medicine Society. Thiel has been named Research Scientist of the Year, Physician of the Year, and Disability Researcher of the Year by the largest American naturopathic association. Doc. Thiel has had the only comprehensive paper published in a medical peer-reviewed journal (Medical Hypotheses) on the advantages of natural food vitamins over synthetic 'nutrients'. He also specializes in nutritional interventions for fatigue, sports performance, and various genetic and non-genetic disabilities.

Another is Steve Xue Ph.D., who runs Natural Medicine Without Borders. Dr. Xue also teaches Alternative Medicine to senior students at Portland State University and aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine at top TCM universities in China. Dr. Xue received the Best Teaching Award by the Center for Teaching Excellence of Ohio University and the Award for Excellence of Research by the College of Education of Arkansas State University. He has authored various papers and books. He also specializes in alternative interventions for communications disorders.

Another researcher is Dr. James Schutz who has a doctorate in nutrition. He works with Kay Minders who holds a B.S. in nutrition. Both Dr. Schutz and Ms. Minders are also a board certified holistic health practitioners. Dr. Schutz has been registered internationally as a specialist in fibromylagia, immune disorders, and nutrition. Ms. Minders also has been registered as a therapeutic specialist in nutrition and immune disorders. Both also work with genetic and non-genetic disabilities.

Input is also provided by health professionals throughout the world.

Why are Food Research nutrients better than isolated USP nutrients? Human beings should get their nutrition from foods. "The body is designed to handle foods" [1]. It is important to realize "that in nature vitamins are never isolated. They are always present in the form of vitamin-complexes" [2-5]. Vitamins are natural complexes which produce a variety of actions in the body whereas some isolated USP vitamins are analogues of vitamins which appear to have at least some of these activities [5]. Food nutrients are complexed just as nutrients found in all foods, because they are food. USP vitamins are synthesized (according to strict federal standards), standardized chemical isolates (as listed in the United States Pharmacopoeia or the USAN and USP Dictionary of Drug Names) [6]; they are not food.

It is well known among nutrition researchers that most essential minerals are not well absorbed (some are less than 1%) [7]. "Bioavailability of orally administered vitamins, minerals, and trace elements is subject to a complex set of influences...In nutrition science the term 'bioavailability' encompasses the sum of impacts that may reduce or foster the metabolic utilization of a nutrient" [8]. Studies show that natural food complex nutrients are better than isolated USP vitamins or inorganic mineral salts or mineral chelates [e.g. 9-25].

Compared to USP/Mineral Salt

Up to 25 times more bioavailable [20]

Numerous university studies have concluded that supplements containing food nutrients are better than USP isolates. Food nutrients are better because they contain important enzymes, peptides, and phytonutrients CRITICAL to the UTILIZATION of vitamins and minerals which are not present in isolated USP nutrients. Published research has concluded that food vitamins are superior synthetic/USP vitamins.

References: [1] Whitney EN, Hamilton EMN. Understanding Nutrition, 4th ed. West Publishing, New York, 1987 [2] Airola P. How to Get Well. Health Plus, Sherwood (OR), 1989 [3] Olson JA. Vitamin A, retinoids, and carotenoids. In Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 8th ed. Lea & Febiger, Phil.,1994:287-307 [4] Farrell PA, Roberts RJ. Vitamin E. In Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 8th ed. Lea & Febiger, Phil.,1994:326-358 [5] DeCava JA. The Real Truth about Vitamins & Antioxidants. A Printery, Centerfield (MA), 1997 [6] The United States Pharmacopeial Convention. USAN and USP Dictionary of Drug Names. Mack Printing, Easton (PA),1986 [7] Turnland JR. Bioavailability of dietary minerals to humans: the stable isotope approach. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr,1991;30(4);387-396 [8] Schumann K, et al. Bioavailability of oral vitamins, minerals, and trace minerals in perspective. Arzneimittelforshcung,1997;47(4):369-380 [9] Ha SW. Rabbit study comparing yeast and isolated B vitamins (as described in Murray RP. Natural vs. Synthetic. Mark R. Anderson, 1995, p:A3). Ann Rev Physiol,1941; 3:259-282 [10] Thiel R. Natural vitamins may be superior to synthetic ones. Med Hypo.2000;55(6):461-469 [11] Thiel R.J, Fowkes S.W. Can cognitive deterioration associated with Down syndrome be reduced? Medical Hypotheses, 2005; 64(3):524-532 [12] Traber MG, Elsner A, Brigelius-Flohe R. Synthetic as compared with natural vitamin E is preferentially excreted as alpha-CEHC in human urine: studies using deuterated alpha-tocopherol acetates. FEBS Letters, 1998;437:145-148 [13] Ross A.C. Vitamin A and Carotenoids. In Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 10th ed. Lippincott William & Wilkins, Phil, 2005: 351-375 [14] Lucock M. Is folic acid the ultimate functional food component for disease prevention? BMJ, 2004;328:211-214 [15] Williams D. ORAC values for fruits and vegetables. Alternatives, 1999;7(22):171 [16] Thiel R. Vitamin D, rickets, and mainstream experts. Int J Naturopathy, 2003; 2(1) [17] Traber MG. Vitamin E. In Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 9th ed. Williams & Wilkins, 1999:347-362 [18] Olson R.E. Vitamin K. In Modern Nutrition in Health and Nutrition, 9th ed. Williams & Wilkins, Balt., 1999: 363-380 [19] Hamet P, et al. The evaluation of the scientific evidence for a relationship between calcium and hypertension. J Nutr, 1995;125:311S-400S [20] Ensminger AH, Ensminger ME, Konlade JE, Robson JRK. Food & Nutrition Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. CRC Press, New York, 1993 [21] Wood R.J., Ronnenberg A.G. Iron. In Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 10th ed. Lippincott William & Wilkins, Phil, 2005: 248-270 [22] Rude R.K., Shils M.E. Magnesium. In Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 10th ed. Lippincott William & Wilkins, Phil, 2005: 223-247 [23] Biotechnology in the Feed Industry. Nottingham Press, UK, 1995: 257-267 [24] Andlid TA, Veide J, Sandberg AS. Metabolism of extracellular inositol hexaphosphate (phytate) by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Int J. Food Microbiology. 2004;97(2):157-169 [25] King JC, Cousins RJ. Zinc. In Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, 10 th ed. Lipponcott Williams & Wilkins, Phil., 2005:271-285

Some of these studies (citations) may not conform to peer review standards. Therefore the results are not conclusive. Professionals can, and often do, come to different conclusions when reviewing scientific data (peer-reviewed or not).

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Food Research; 100% Whole Food Supplements for Healthcare ...

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ID Automation

Posted: at 1:25 am

New & Updated: IDAutomation provides barcode software including barcode fonts, DLLs, ActiveX controls, .NET assemblies, label printing software and hardware such as barcode scanners and printers. Many symbologies are supported such as Code 128, Code 39, Postnet, Interleaved 2 of 5, UPC, EAN, GS1, DataBar, Intelligent Mail, Data Matrix, Aztec, Maxicode, QR-Code and PDF417. Quick Links:

Create barcodes without the use of fonts by dynamically creating barcodes as graphic images.

Add dynamic barcode capability to various programs without installing special fonts, DLLs or plug-ins.

Server designed barcode capability includes linear barcodes including Code 128, Code 39, DataBar, UPC/EAN and IMb, as well as, 2D barcodes such as QR-Code, Data Matrix and PDF417.

Let IDAutomation host your barcode needs with their online barcode generator services without the need to manage hardware, deploy patches and upgrades, or monitor performance.

Create Barcode Labels easily with the WYSIWYG design interface; print barcodes, text and images on any label size to any graphic printer.

Create high-quality graphic barcode image files on the fly for importing the into desktop publishing or graphic design applications.

RedBeam Inventory Tracking Software is an easy-to-use application designed to help control inventory levels and item movements within a warehouse, a distribution center, stock room or store. Comes in two editions: standard and mobile.

After evaluating several scanners that are available today, IDAutomation offers a variety of scanners that are the best performing for the best value. All of the scanners offered are complete kits that include all the necessary cables and are ready to use right out of the box. If interested in easily integrating a USB scanner into existing or custom applications as automation, input and verification devices, please read how to scan data into applications.

IDAutomation offers high-speed, dedicated thermal barcode label printers from Zebra and Intermec. Serial and parallel ports are provided on all the printers listed and some have USB and Ethernet interfaces as well.

There are two models to choose from - direct thermal and/or thermal transfer.

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ID Automation

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IT Automation – BMC

Posted: at 1:25 am

BMC digital IT powers 82% of Fortune 500 companies

IT automationwhen it works, its barely visible; when it fails, its catastrophic. Even if your automation initiative can pay for itself with hard-dollar savings in operational costs, taking an ad-hoc approach in the era of the digital enterprise puts you at a serious competitive disadvantage.

Implemented strategically, automation can deliver far greater business value by dramatically improving time to market and quality of service, increasing your ability to respond quickly to changing business requirements, and radically reducing security and compliance risks. BMC Software provides the best-practices guidance, products, and services you need to achieve a lasting competitive advantage through automation.

BMC SecOps solutions enable organizations to prioritize and remediate critical vulnerabilities and compliance violations through visibility into data center assets and their relationships.

BMC BladeLogic Server Automation helps IT rapidly remediate known vulnerabilities, and automate compliance checks for regulatory requirements such as PCI-DSS or security standards like DISA.

BMC BladeLogic Threat Director enables IT operations and security teams to prioritize and remediate threats based on potential impact to the business.

BMC BladeLogic Network Automation enables IT with a policy-based approach to regulatory standards for network management with real-time compliance audit reporting and vulnerability detection and remediation.

BMC BladeLogic Database Automation automates routine administrative tasks and compliance processes, accelerates deployment and patching, and reduces security vulnerabilities by streamlining the database management process.

BMC Discovery (formerly ADDM) automatically discovers data center inventory, configuration, and relationship data, and maps business applications to the IT infrastructure.

BMC Atrium Orchestrator allows IT staff to automate tasks via workflows that span multiple applications, systems, or infrastructure to document change and close the loop on compliance.

BMC BladeLogic Middleware Automation easily deploys, configures, and troubleshoots Java EE applications without manual steps.

Manage data center automation complexity and reduce your IT costs by leveraging the expertise of our project managers, consultants, and architects.

BMC Digital Transformation Consulting Services help develop the initiatives, structures, and capabilities you need to get the most out of your IT investments.

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The Abolition of Man – Wikipedia

Posted: at 1:25 am

The Abolition of Man is a 1943 book by C. S. Lewis. It is subtitled "Reflections on education with special reference to the teaching of English in the upper forms of schools," and uses that as a starting point for a defense of objective value and natural law, and a warning of the consequences of doing away with or "debunking" those things. It defends science as something worth pursuing but criticizes using it to debunk valuesthe value of science itself being among themor defining it to exclude such values. The book was first delivered as a series of three evening lectures at King's College, Newcastle, part of the University of Durham, as the Riddell Memorial Lectures on February 2426, 1943.

Lewis begins with a critical response to The Green Book, by Gaius and Titius, i.e. The Control of Language: A Critical Approach to Reading and Writing, published in 1939 by Alex King and Martin Ketley.[1] The Green book was used as a text for upper form students in British schools.[2]

Lewis criticises the authors for subverting student values. He claims that they teach that all statements of value (such as "this waterfall is sublime") are merely statements about the speaker's feelings and say nothing about the object. Lewis says that such a subjective view of values is faulty, and, on the contrary, certain objects and actions merit positive or negative reactions: that a waterfall can actually be objectively praiseworthy, and that one's actions can be objectively good or evil. In any case, Lewis notes, this is a philosophical position rather than a grammatical one, and so parents and teachers who give such books to their children and students are having them read the "work of amateur philosophers where they expected the work of professional grammarians."

Lewis cites ancient thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle and Augustine, who believed that the purpose of education was to train children in "ordinate affections," that is, to train them to like and dislike what they ought; to love the good and hate the bad. He says that although these values are universal, they do not develop automatically or inevitably in children (and so are not "natural" in that sense of the word), but must be taught through education. Those who lack them lack the specifically human element, the trunk that unites intellectual man with visceral (animal) man, and may be called "men without chests".

Lewis criticizes modern attempts to debunk "natural" values (such as those that would deny objective value to the waterfall) on rational grounds. He says that there is a set of objective values that have been shared, with minor differences, by every culture "...the traditional moralities of East and West, the Christian, the Pagan, and the Jew...". Lewis calls this the Tao (which closely resembles Taoist usage).[a] Without the Tao, no value judgments can be made at all, and modern attempts to do away with some parts of traditional morality for some "rational" reason always proceed by arbitrarily selecting one part of the Tao and using it as grounds to debunk the others.

The final chapter describes the ultimate consequences of this debunking: a distant future in which the values and morals of the majority are controlled by a small group who rule by a "perfect" understanding of psychology, and who in turn, being able to "see through" any system of morality that might induce them to act in a certain way, are ruled only by their own unreflected whims. In surrendering rational reflection on their own motivations, the controllers will no longer be recognizably human, the controlled will be robot-like, and the Abolition of Man will have been completed.

An appendix to The Abolition of Man lists a number of basic values seen by Lewis as parts of the Tao, supported by quotations from different cultures.

A fictional treatment of the dystopian project to carry out the Abolition of Man is a theme of Lewis's novel That Hideous Strength.

Passages from The Abolition of Man are included in William Bennett's 1993 book The Book of Virtues.

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The Abolition of Man - Wikipedia

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Bodies of Empowerment Personal Training

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Hello and welcome to Bodies of Empowerment Personal Training! My name is Nate McConnell - I'm a personal fitness trainer and weight loss expert with over 18 years of personal training experience throughout the Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati areas. Here at Bodies of Empowerment, we offer a Complete Fitness Solution! We not only train you, we teach you how to eat properly through our Nutritional Consulting services. While other personal trainers simply provide you with vague tips, we go the extra mile in helping you design a healthy meal plan that includes foods you love! In short, we not only make reaching your goals realistic and attainable, we teach you how to eat and exercise for life!

If you are just looking for a trainer to take you through the motions and count reps, you are seriously selling yourself short! What makes us different? We truly invest in your life! Our clients are like family to us. You will never be treated like a number here! You can trade time for money anywhere (workouts for dollars). If youre just looking for the cheapest option in town, we are not the right fit for you! The first step is to meet with us for a free consultation. It is then, we are able to factor your budget into this process, allowing us to find the best training program for you! If you truly want to change your life and regain control over your health and fitness, then we welcome you to our family! You are home.

Whether you are just getting started, have little experience, or want to take your progress to the next level, our services provide everything you need to reach your personal goals! Why spend countless hours in the gym with little to no return for your efforts? Eliminate years of trial and error. Stop wasting time and energy on routines and diets that dont work and begin making changes now with our proven system!

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Nietzsches Analysis of Nihilism | The World Is On Fire

Posted: at 1:24 am

by Vered Arnon

In the notebook(1) excerpts published as The Will to Power Nietzsche describes nihilism as ambiguous in that it can be symptomatic of either strength or weakness. Nietzsche claims that nihilism is a necessary step in the transition to a revaluation of all values. Passive nihilism is characterised by a weak will, and active nihilism by a strong will. Nietzsche emphasises that nihilism is merely a means to an end, and not an end in itself.

Nihilism, according to Nietzsche, is the most extreme form of pessimism. Put simply, it is the belief that everything is meaningless, but this oversimplifies the concept. Nihilism is a transitional stage that accompanies human development. It arises from weariness. When people feel alienated from values, and have lost the foundation of their value system but have not replaced it with anything, then they become nihilists. They become disappointed with the egoistic nature of truth and morality and so on, but at the same time recognise that what is egoistic is necessary. The notion of free will seems contradictory. Values, though originating from the ego, have been placed in a sphere so far outside and above that they are untouchable. Any attempt to really figure out the truth or posit a true reality has become impossible, thus the world appears meaningless and valueless. The nihilist realises that all criteria by which the real world have been measured are categories that refer to a fictitious, constructed world. This sense of alienation results in exhaustion.

Nihilism would be a good sign, Nietzsche writes in his notebooks. It is a necessary transitional phase, cleansing and clearing away outdated value systems so that something new can rise in their place. He writes about two different forms of nihilism, active nihilism and passive nihilism. Passive nihilism is more the traditional belief that all is meaningless, while active nihilism goes beyond judgement to deed, and destroys values where they seem apparent. Passive nihilism signifies the end of an era, while active nihilism ushers in something new. Nietzsche considers nihilism not as an end, but as a means ultimately to the revaluation of values. He stresses repeatedly that nihilism is a transitional stage.

Passive nihilism is symptomatic of decreased, declined, receded power of the spirit(2). One recognises that all external values are empty and have no true authority. This renders the internal values, the conscience, meaningless as well, resulting in the loss of personal authority. All authority gone, the spirit in hopelessness and with a sense of fatalism strives to rid itself of all responsibility. All trust in society is gone, and the will is weakened. Aims, motives, and goals are gone. The spirit wants something to depend on, but has absolutely nothing that isnt arbitrary. Disintegration of the structured system of values leads one to seek escape in anything that still maintains an outward semblance of authority. These things are hollow escapes though, what Nietzsche calls self-narcotization. The spirit attempts to escape, or at least forget about the emptiness. The weakened will strives to intoxicate itself in resignation, generalisations, petty things, debauchery and fanaticism. The will is weak and seeks escape rather than action. But any attempt to escape nihilism without revaluating values only makes the problem more acute.

Active nihilism is symptomatic of an increased power of the spirit. The will is strengthened and rebellious. This is the form of nihilism that does not stop at judgement, but goes on in action to be destructive towards the remaining vestiges of empty value systems. The strength of the will is tested by whether or not it can recognise all value systems as empty and meaningless, yet admit that these lies arise out of us and serve a purpose. This denial of a truthful world, Nietzsche says, may be a divine way of thinking. The active nihilist recognises that simplification and lies are necessary for life. The value of values becomes their emptiness. Where rationality and reason have clearly failed, the nihilist embraces irrationality and freedom from logic. The will now has an opportunity to assert its strength and power to deny all authority and deny goals and faith to deny the constraints of existence. Nietzsche describes this state as both destructive and ironic.

Active nihilism obviously is not an end, however. It merely opens the stage for the beginning of a revaluation of values. It opens the stage for the will to take power and assert itself. Nihilism is the precursor to revaluation, it does not replace values, it only tears them away. It functions as an essential transition, and must be understood as a means and not an end.

1 This paper is an analysis of notebook passages in an attempt to piece together and summarise Nietzsches ideas on a very small specific topic (His notebook entries often deal with nihilism, morality, pessimism, etc all at once. I am attempting to put together coherently what his views are on nihilism, sorting it out from the rest and leaving the rest alone). For the ease of reading, I will not employ internal citation. All of these ideas and propositions belong to Nietzsche alone, and come from Book One: European Nihilism from The Will To Power, translated and edited by Walter Kaufmann in 1967. 2 Spirit refers to a persons will. Nietzsche does not posit the existence of souls. This word is not used in a religious sense.

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Nietzsches Analysis of Nihilism | The World Is On Fire

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Atheism | Answers in Genesis

Posted: at 1:23 am

Atheist Richard Dawkins claims that teaching children to accept their families religious beliefs is child abuse. He considers this form of abuse to be more devastatingly and permanently harmful than sexual abuse. In truth, even the atheistic belief that there is no God is a religion.

If someone stabs you in the back, treats you like nothing, steals from you, or lies to you, it doesnt ultimately matter in an atheistic worldview where everything and everyone are just chemical reactions doing what chemicals do

The fact that atheists even bother to congregate to discuss the meaning of life shows just how desperately human beings need the true God. Even when we try to remove God from our lives, we are compelled to fill the void with some other religion. And atheism is undeniably a religious position.

I know theres no God. And one polite person living his life right doesnt change that. How about two, three, maybe four people living right? What if every Christian exuded this type of concern?

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Atheism | Answers in Genesis

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Word Games: What the NSA Means by Targeted Surveillance …

Posted: at 1:22 am

We all know that the NSA uses word games to hide and downplay its activities. Words like "collect," "conversations," "communications," and even "surveillance" have suffered tortured definitions that create confusion rather than clarity.

Theres another one to watch: "targeted" v. "mass" surveillance.

Since 2008, the NSA has seized tens of billions of Internet communications. It uses the Upstream and PRISM programswhich the government claims are authorized under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Actto collect hundreds of millions of those communications each year. The scope is breathtaking, including the ongoing seizure and searching of communications flowing through key Internet backbone junctures,[1]the searching of communications held by service providers like Google and Facebook, and, according to the government's own investigators, the retention of significantly more than 250 million Internet communications per year.[2]

Yet somehow, the NSA and its defenders still try to pass 702 surveillance off as "targeted surveillance," asserting that it is incorrect when EFF and many others call it "mass surveillance."

Our answer: if "mass surveillance" includes the collection of the content of hundreds of millions of communications annually and the real-time search of billions more, then the PRISM and Upstream programs under Section 702 fully satisfy that definition.

This word game is important because Section 702 is set to expire in December 2017. EFF and our colleagues who banded together to stop the Section 215 telephone records surveillance are gathering our strength for this next step in reining in the NSA. At the same time, the government spin doctors are trying to avoid careful examination by convincing Congress and the American people that this is just "targeted" surveillance and doesnt impact innocent people.

PRISM and Upstream surveillance are two types of surveillance that the government admits that it conducts under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, passed in 2008. Each kind of surveillance gives the U.S. government access to vast quantities of Internet communications.[3]

Upstream gives the NSA access to communications flowing through the fiber-optic Internet backbone cables within the United States.[4] This happens because the NSA, with the help of telecommunications companies like AT&T, makes wholesale copies of the communications streams passing through certain fiber-optic backbone cables. Upstream is at issue in EFFs Jewel v. NSA case.

PRISM gives the government access to communications in the possession of third-party Internet service providers, such as Google, Yahoo, or Facebook. Less is known about how PRISM actually works, something Congress should shine some light on between now and December 2017.[5]

Note that those two programs existed prior to 2008they were just done under a shifting set of legal theories and authorities.[6] EFF has had evidence of the Upstream program from whistleblower Mark Klein since 2006, and we have been suing to stop it ever since.

Despite government claims to the contrary, heres why PRISM and Upstream are "mass surveillance":

(1) Breadth of acquisition: First, the scope of collection under both PRISM and Upstream surveillance is exceedingly broad. The NSA acquires hundreds of millions, if not billions, of communications under these programs annually.[7] Although, in the U.S. governments view, the programs are nominally "targeted," that targeting sweeps so broadly that the communications of innocent third parties are inevitably and intentionally vacuumed up in the process. For example, a review of a "large cache of intercepted conversations" provided by Edward Snowden and analyzed by the Washington Post revealed that 9 out of 10 account holders "were not the intended surveillance targets but were caught in a net the agency had cast for somebody else."[8] The material reviewed by the Post consisted of 160,000 intercepted e-mail and instant message conversations, 7,900 documents (including "medical records sent from one family member to another, resumes from job hunters and academic transcripts of schoolchildren"), and more than 5,000 private photos.[9] In all, the cache revealed the "daily lives of more than 10,000 account holders who were not targeted [but were] catalogued and recorded nevertheless."[10] The Post estimated that, at the U.S. governments annual rate of "targeting," collection under Section 702 would encompass more than 900,000 user accounts annually. By any definition, this is "mass surveillance."

(2) Indiscriminate full-content searching. Second, in the course of accomplishing its so-called "targeted" Upstream surveillance, the U.S. government, in part through its agent AT&T, indiscriminately searches the contents of billions of Internet communications as they flow through the nations domestic, fiber-optic Internet backbone. This type of surveillance, known as "about surveillance," involves the NSA's retention of communications that are neither to nor from a target of surveillance; rather, it authorizes the NSA to obtain any communications "about" the target.[11] Even if the acquisition of communications containing information "about" a surveillance target could, somehow, still be considered "targeted," the method for accomplishing that surveillance cannot be: "about" surveillance entails a content search of all, or substantially all, international Internet communications transiting the United States.[12] Again, by any definition, Upstream surveillance is "mass surveillance." For PRISM, while less is known, it seems the government is able to search throughor require the companies like Google and Facebook to search throughall the customer data stored by the corporations for communications to or from its targets.

To accomplish Upstream surveillance, the NSA copies (or has its agents like AT&T copy) Internet traffic as it flows through the fiber-optic backbone. This copying, even if the messages are only retained briefly, matters under the law. Under U.S. constitutional law, when the federal government "meaningfully interferes"with an individuals protected communications, those communications have been "seized" for purposes of the U.S. Constitutions Fourth Amendment. Thus, when the U.S. government copies (or has copied) communications wholesale and diverts them for searching, it has "seized" those communications under the Fourth Amendment.

Similarly, U.S. wiretapping law triggers a wiretap at the point of "interception by a device," which occurs when the Upstream mechanisms gain access to our communications.[13]

Why does the government insist that its targeted? For Upstream, it may be because the initial collection and searching of the communicationsdone by service providers like AT&T on the governments behalfis really, really fast and much of the information initially collected is then quickly disposed of. In this way the Upstream collection is unlike the telephone records collection where the NSA kept all of the records it seized for years. Yet this difference should not change the conclusion that the surveillance is "mass surveillance." First, all communications flowing through the collection points upstream are seized and searched, including content and metadata. Second, as noted above, the amount of information retainedover 250 million Internet communications per yearis astonishing.

Thus, regardless of the time spent, the seizure and search are comprehensive and invasive. Using advanced computers, the NSA and its agents can do a full-text, content search within a blink of an eye through billions, if not trillions of your communications, including emails, social media, and web searches. Second, as demonstrated above, the government retains a huge amount of the communicationsfar more about innocent people than about its targetsso even based on what is retained the surveillance is better described as "mass" rather than "targeted."

So it is completely correct to characterize Section 702 as mass surveillance. It stems from the confluence of: (1) the method NSA employs to accomplish its surveillance, particularly Upstream, and (2) the breadth of that surveillance.

Next time you see the government or its supporters claim that PRISM and Upstream are "targeted" surveillance programs, youll know better.

[1] See, e.g., Charlie Savage, NSA Said to Search Content of Messages to and From U.S., N.Y. Times (Aug 8, 2013) (The National Security Agency is searching the contents of vast amounts of Americans e-mail and text communications into and out of the country[.]). This article describes an NSA practice known as about surveillancea practice that involves searching the contents of communications as they flow through the nations fiber-optic Internet backbone.

[2] FISA Court Opinion by Judge Bates entitled [Caption Redacted], at 29 (NSA acquires more than two hundred fifty million Internet communications each year pursuant to Section 702), https://www.eff.org/document/october-3-2011-fisc-opinion-holding-nsa-surveillance-unconstitutional (Hereinafter, Bates Opinion). According to the PCLOB report, the current number is significantly higher than 250 million communications. PCLOB Report on 702 at 116.

[3] Bates Opinion at 29; PCLOB at 116.

[6] First, the Bush Administration relied solely on broad claims of Executive power, grounded in secret legal interpretations written by the Department of Justice. Many of those interpretations were subsequently abandoned by later Bush Administration officials. Beginning in 2006, DOJ was able to turn to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to sign off on its surveillance programs. In 2007, Congress finally stepped into the game, passing the Protect America Act; which, a year later, was substantially overhauled and passed again as the FISA Amendments Act. While neither of those statutes mention the breadth of the surveillance and it was not discussed publicly during the Congressional processes, both have been cited by the government as authorizing it.

[11] Bates Opinion at 15.

[12] PCLOB report at 119-120.

[13] See 18 U.S.C 2511(1)(a); U.S. v. Councilman, 418 F.3d 67, 70-71, 79 (1st Cir. 2005) (en banc).

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Word Games: What the NSA Means by Targeted Surveillance ...

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The Politically Incorrect Guide – Wikipedia

Posted: at 1:20 am

The Politically Incorrect Guide is a book series by Regnery Publishing presenting conservative or so-called "politically incorrect" beliefs on various topics. Each book is written by a different author and generally presents a conservative or libertarian viewpoint on the subject at hand. The series was the brainchild of Jeffrey Rubin,[citation needed] then editor of the Conservative Book Club, Regnery's sister company within Washington, DC-based Eagle Publishing.

Each Politically Incorrect Guide contains the following:

Some books have variations on this theme, such as:

One feature of The Politically Incorrect Guide series is the ability for readers to vote (through Regnery's associate Human Events) on topics they would like to see covered in future books. The top three selected topics in a 2006 readers' poll[1] were: the United States Constitution, The Bible, and Capitalism. Books in the series for all three topics have since been published.

The Panda's Thumb, a blog which supports mainstream science and the consensus on evolution, reviewed The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design providing analysis on nine of the 17 chapters and called it "not only politically incorrect but incorrect in most other ways as well: scientifically, logically, historically, legally, academically, and morally."[2]Chris Mooney has criticized The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, calling it "the Incorrect Guide to Science".[3] Some historians also took issue with The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War criticizing its "cherry-picked research and one-sided judgments of figures".[4] The One People's Project described author H.W. Crocker III as a neo-confederate.[5] Politically Incorrect Guide authors Kevin Gutzman and Clint Johnson have appeared on The Political Cesspool, a white nationalist radio show.[6]

Three of the books have been translated into Spanish:

Three books have been translated into Italian:

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The Politically Incorrect Guide - Wikipedia

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On Censorship – The New Yorker

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No writer ever really wants to talk about censorship. Writers want to talk about creation, and censorship is anti-creation, negative energy, uncreation, the bringing into being of non-being, or, to use Tom Stoppards description of death, the absence of presence. Censorship is the thing that stops you doing what you want to do, and what writers want to talk about is what they do, not what stops them doing it. And writers want to talk about how much they get paid, and they want to gossip about other writers and how much they get paid, and they want to complain about critics and publishers, and gripe about politicians, and they want to talk about what they love, the writers they love, the stories and even sentences that have meant something to them, and, finally, they want to talk about their own ideas and their own stories. Their things. The British humorist Paul Jennings, in his brilliant essay on Resistentialism, a spoof of Existentialism, proposed that the world was divided into two categories, Thing and No-Thing, and suggested that between these two is waged a never-ending war. If writing is Thing, then censorship is No-Thing, and, as King Lear told Cordelia, Nothing will came of nothing, or, as Mr. Jennings would have revised Shakespeare, No-Thing will come of No-Thing. Think again.

Consider, if you will, the air. Here it is, all around us, plentiful, freely available, and broadly breathable. And yes, I know, its not perfectly clean or perfectly pure, but here it nevertheless is, plenty of it, enough for all of us and lots to spare. When breathable air is available so freely and in such quantity, it would be redundant to demand that breathable air be freely provided to all, in sufficient quantity for the needs of all. What you have, you can easily take for granted, and ignore. Theres just no need to make a fuss about it. You breathe the freely available, broadly breathable air, and you get on with your day. The air is not a subject. It is not something that most of us want to discuss.

Imagine, now, that somewhere up there you might find a giant set of faucets, and that the air we breathe flows from those faucets, hot air and cold air and tepid air from some celestial mixer-unit. And imagine that an entity up there, not known to us, or perhaps even known to us, begins on a certain day to turn off the faucets one by one, so that slowly we begin to notice that the available air, still breathable, still free, is thinning. The time comes when we find that we are breathing more heavily, perhaps even gasping for air. By this time, many of us would have begun to protest, to condemn the reduction in the air supply, and to argue loudly for the right to freely available, broadly breathable air. Scarcity, you could say, creates demand.

Liberty is the air we breathe, and we live in a part of the world where, imperfect as the supply is, it is, nevertheless, freely available, at least to those of us who arent black youngsters wearing hoodies in Miami, and broadly breathable, unless, of course, were women in red states trying to make free choices about our own bodies. Imperfectly free, imperfectly breathable, but when it is breathable and free we dont need to make a song and dance about it. We take it for granted and get on with our day. And at night, as we fall asleep, we assume we will be free tomorrow, because we were free today.

The creative act requires not only freedom but also this assumption of freedom. If the creative artist worries if he will still be free tomorrow, then he will not be free today. If he is afraid of the consequences of his choice of subject or of his manner of treatment of it, then his choices will not be determined by his talent, but by fear. If we are not confident of our freedom, then we are not free.

And, even worse than that, when censorship intrudes on art, it becomes the subject; the art becomes censored art, and that is how the world sees and understands it. The censor labels the work immoral, or blasphemous, or pornographic, or controversial, and those words are forever hung like albatrosses around the necks of those cursed mariners, the censored works. The attack on the work does more than define the work; in a sense, for the general public, it becomes the work. For every reader of Lady Chatterleys Lover or Tropic of Capricorn, every viewer of Last Tango in Paris or A Clockwork Orange, there will be ten, a hundred, a thousand people who know those works as excessively filthy, or excessively violent, or both.

The assumption of guilt replaces the assumption of innocence. Why did that Indian Muslim artist have to paint that Hindu goddess in the nude? Couldnt he have respected her modesty? Why did that Russian writer have his hero fall in love with a nymphet? Couldnt he have chosen a legally acceptable age? Why did that British playwright depict a sexual assault in a Sikh temple, a gurdwara? Couldnt the same assault have been removed from holy ground? Why are artists so troublesome? Cant they just offer us beauty, morality, and a damn good story? Why do artists think, if they behave in this way, that we should be on their side? And the people all said sit down, sit down youre rocking the boat / And the devil will drag you under, with a soul so heavy youll never float / Sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down / Youre rocking the boat.

At its most effective, the censors lie actually succeeds in replacing the artists truth. That which is censored is thought to have deserved censorship. Boat-rocking is deplored.

Nor is this only so in the world of art. The Ministry of Truth in present-day China has successfully persuaded a very large part of the Chinese public that the heroes of Tiananmen Square were actually villains bent on the destruction of the nation. This is the final victory of the censor: When people, even people who know they are routinely lied to, cease to be able to imagine what is really the case.

Sometimes great, banned works defy the censors description and impose themselves on the worldUlysses, Lolita, the Arabian Nights. Sometimes great and brave artists defy the censors to create marvellous literature underground, as in the case of the samizdat literature of the Soviet Union, or to make subtle films that dodge the edge of the censors knife, as in the case of much contemporary Iranian and some Chinese cinema. You will even find people who will give you the argument that censorship is good for artists because it challenges their imagination. This is like arguing that if you cut a mans arms off you can praise him for learning to write with a pen held between his teeth. Censorship is not good for art, and it is even worse for artists themselves. The work of Ai Weiwei survives; the artist himself has an increasingly difficult life. The poet Ovid was banished to the Black Sea by a displeased Augustus Caesar, and spent the rest of his life in a little hellhole called Tomis, but the poetry of Ovid has outlived the Roman Empire. The poet Mandelstam died in one of Stalins labor camps, but the poetry of Mandelstam has outlived the Soviet Union. The poet Lorca was murdered in Spain, by Generalissimo Francos goons, but the poetry of Lorca has outlived the fascistic Falange. So perhaps we can argue that art is stronger than the censor, and perhaps it often is. Artists, however, are vulnerable.

In England last week, English PEN protested that the London Book Fair had invited only a bunch of official, State-approved writers from China while the voices of at least thirty-five writers jailed by the regime, including Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo and the political dissident and poet Zhu Yufu, remained silent and ignored. In the United States, every year, religious zealots try to ban writers as disparate as Kurt Vonnegut and J. K. Rowling, an obvious advocate of sorcery and the black arts; to say nothing of poor, God-bothered Charles Darwin, against whom the advocates of intelligent design continue to march. I once wrote, and it still feels true, that the attacks on the theory of evolution in parts of the United States themselves go some way to disproving the theory, demonstrating that natural selection doesnt always work, or at least not in the Kansas area, and that human beings are capable of evolving backward, too, towards the Missing Link.

Even more serious is the growing acceptance of the dont-rock-the-boat response to those artists who do rock it, the growing agreement that censorship can be justified when certain interest groups, or genders, or faiths declare themselves affronted by a piece of work. Great art, or, lets just say, more modestly, original art is never created in the safe middle ground, but always at the edge. Originality is dangerous. It challenges, questions, overturns assumptions, unsettles moral codes, disrespects sacred cows or other such entities. It can be shocking, or ugly, or, to use the catch-all term so beloved of the tabloid press, controversial. And if we believe in liberty, if we want the air we breathe to remain plentiful and breathable, this is the art whose right to exist we must not only defend, but celebrate. Art is not entertainment. At its very best, its a revolution.

This piece is drawn from the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture given by Rushdie, on May 6th, as part of the PEN World Voices Festival.

Illustration by Matthew Hollister.

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On Censorship - The New Yorker

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