AYAHUASCA AND EPIGENETICS (1st Part) CHANGE OF HUMAN DNA FROM AYAHUASCA CONSUMPTION? We are a step away from proving that evolution from the inside is possible thanks to a standardised method and a scientific study that is starting this year.

Although there are many of us who know that change from the inside is possible, because we have proved this in our own lives, now is the time for science to prove it.

I believe, without exception, that all truth seekers are trying change in their lives. The same happens with those who would like to resolve something, find a way out or an answer. In one way or another what is almost always present is the need to change something that they don’t like, that upsets them or that creates some kind of lack of well-being.

Many people claim “I have only come out of curiosity” “I’m interested in trying ayahuasca or other medicinal plants but that’s it” “I want to see the effects it produces”, but even so, another reality, that is more or less hidden, to make some some sort of change emerges at the retreat, but they don’t dare to manifest it directly. Sometimes because it seems impossible to them, other times because there is a preventative avoidance because of the fear it creates in them. We are discovering empirically that THE WHOLE OF HUMANITY IS SCREAMING…I WANT TO CHANGE! Even if it is an internal scream, sometimes soft or hidden, weakened by fear or eclipsed by beliefs. This discovery is nothing new, but what is novel at Inner Mastery (the organisation dedicated to inner transformation) is that we are tackling it with an original technology that has never been used before.

There is an intimate relationship between “finding” and changing, between “solutions” and changing, between “healing” and changing, between “being happier” and changing, between “freeing ourselves” and changing, between “being oneself” and changing. Is it possible to achieve something if there is not a change previously?

The need for change is the common denominator in most people. But coincidentally there is a huge resistance to change in those same people. Both the need for and fear of change are common factors. Fear follows each attempt at change like a shadow. It seems that this dichotomy exists at both the molecular and the psychological levels.

From when a person considers a challenge or goal -something which will hide some level of need for change- until those objectives are reached, there will be a process of great psycho-emotional wear and tear due to the counter-position produced by the need for change and the resistance to change. A genuine interior struggle. In order to achieve that which I am looking for, I should change, but I daren’t change for fear of losing or because I intuit that I will go into the unknown that I can’t control. When the necessity for change is not as strong as the fear, fear’s victory is assured. It is therefore necessary to accompany people in their processes of change in an appropriate and studied a method with proven effectiveness. Knowing everything that happens in such processes; one of those very powerful things is resistance. This is why I am training my psychotherapeutic integrators in the speciality of knowing how to handle resistance in order to access the new and unknown; and to know how to confront those who say they have changed when it is actually a self-deception.

Science has proven the existence of genetic mutations that are resistant to certain drugs that could heal a disease. Why is there resistance at the molecular level to heal? Could there be any relation between psychological resistance and molecular resistance? What would happen if  we fostered change at the molecular level and cellular support  as a basis to then be able to consider life changes that are supported by the organism? How to reverse unconscious resistances to change in order to initiate a process of evolution?

Although I’m proposing this as a philosophical-scientific utopia, this is real now. We are proving it with thousands of people, who change from their deepest level, perhaps even from their DNA and from there, they are unleashing those tsunamis outward, the life changes they wanted so much. Independent of the motivation that will push them to carry out these processes, appear all kinds of changes with coinciding positive and constructive hues for those who experience them. Hence we have thousands of testimonials that we constantly publish on our blog and youtube channel. They are an empirical test, but the scientific one will come soon. It has already been scientifically proven that Ayahuasca DOES NOT DAMAGE PUBLIC HEALTH, we are now on the verge of demonstrating that it can also prevent diseases and even make epigenetic changes that allow any illness to be better dealt with.

The proposition is very simple. People participate in 3 retreats in 3 months, where they take a series of natural remedies, with Ayahuasca playing the key role. One should do a retreat, of 3 days and 3 nights each, every 28 days. Then the participant takes home two types of natural medicines to drink at home. One is an ayahuasca infusion of which the dose is measured exactly so that the person does not have any physical or emotional effects, but so that the energy of the Ayahuasca is present in the body every day, accompanying it in the process and preparing it for the next retreat. We also give bottles with a 100% dilution of a natural shamanic complex to be taken up to 5 times a day. It is like homeopathy that produces even more subtle effects. This dilution also contains ayahuasca in minute amounts.

The 3 distinguishing features of these 3-month processes are:

  • Psychotherapeutic, emotional and affective accompaniment for participants. From integrations involving group dynamics and systemic movements that we carry out after the ayahuasca sessions, to phone or email attention when someone needs to communicate, ask something or simply share their state or situation.
  • The confrontations that we do to those who want to unconsciously escape from the conscious decision they have already taken to change. We use conscious cognitive dissonances, No-therapy and other tools, to pin down the part that is resisting change, and so that the person is honest with their decision.
  • The standardisation of a system in which the process of evolution of the participant is developed. As a result of over 10 years experience with more than 20,000 people, we have created an integrated program based on a transformational technology that brings together and uses several methods and approaches, many tools and techniques.

We believe that these processes produce changes at the cellular and molecular level that we can not express scientifically, but rather by the observation of the person in their habits of life, in their attitude towards society, in their way of being and feeling, and in many more aspects that each person manifests in their own way. It is clear that change is happening, but it was indispensable after so many years and thousands of people to be able to take it to a laboratory and prove it scientifically. In fact in Brazil, before legalizing Ayahuasca, studies were conducted on the groups that consumed ayahuasca weekly, and they were able to conclude that it benefits health, improves habits and social interaction.

Many scientists ask themselves: How to consolidate a molecular change in everyday life? How to manifest externally in relationships or behaviour a change that that has happened to a DNA molecule? How long can it take for this evolutionary process to be visibly appreciated from the outside?

Time is relative to the transformational technology  that accompanies such a process. The mere consumption of natural medicines – and in the way we indicate -, does not 100% guarantee that the person will bring to their daily life the change that has taken place at the molecular level. But if this process is accompanied by expert facilitators and integrators who oversee the way of understanding and integrating the changes that start appearing in peoples’ lives as a result of the expansion of consciousness that they experience, then the system becomes so effective that  change becomes almost inescapable, or at least you get to a point where you make the conscious decision not to change anything, something which is a major breakthrough in any process. At that point, there are a large number of participants and even facilitators who leave in a hurry because they realize that if they follow the method proposed by Inner Mastery, their lives will stop being what they were, but they do not want face that. It is those who only come to find calm or relief, to feed their curiosity or distract themselves, to self-deceive or to prove that nothing can help them; who do not really transform. Even so they sometimes open themselves up to another possibility, and when they comprehend that if they follow and comply with the plan, that they are going to ruin almost everything they have built as a life project; especially the perception about themselves. The reason is that we build life projects based on expectations, external pressures and things that what we are not. This method confronts the weak construction of beliefs, that seem to have power, leading them to such a point that they are dismantled on their own.

Those of us who are in the more than the 500 retreats that take place a year with thousands of participants open to a transformational experience, see the contradiction between wanting and not wanting in them; between needing and resisting. Between the moment of deciding to change and the moment of backing away and deciding not to change exist many internal and external factors that sabotage the process. That is where many people return to the previous plan involving making selective, not massive changes, with things that are bothersome, nothing more. Although that is possible, it is also very complicated and cumbersome, because we know that everything is related to everything, and that to change only one part you have to isolate other parts, which is not healthy. A practical example at a global level – considering the world as a living organism. If we wanted to solve the problem of poverty or exploitation in the world, we would need to change many things: laws, policies, consumption, education, religions, etc. etc. Because those ills are a consequence of many factors that have produced them. Poverty is not solved with only money but with essential changes in humans. That is why we suggest that people make their own decisions from the heart and consciously, and that they are consistent with what they decide, be it to change or not to change. To take charge in any case.

Many are number the people who write to me every day for many reasons related to what I do. But for a long time ago I have been asking existence to send me  scientists who are open-minded and willing to work with me in this area. First came Paco, a lawyer and philosopher from Valencia and his partner Rosa, Pharmacist. They are teachers at our school and they insisted strongly that I should create a Foundation to subsidize scientific studies that endorse what we are seeing and claiming, but without any scientific basis. Paco took care of constituting the Inner Mastery Foundation, of which I am the patron and director, then came along Manuel, an Andalusian scientist who runs a laboratory and who brought the idea to carry out this study already thought out. Manuel said to me: “let’s meet for just a few minutes , that is enough to start this ambitious project.” It is clear that this man manages an enormous level of trust and openness of his pineal gland.

That is how we did it, and we agreed to start as soon as possible. We have the foundation, we have the laboratory, we also have medical professionals, psychologists, biologists, chemists, who make up the team, and we also have many people who participate in our retreats who are willing to collaborate with this project. To do this, they sign a consent form where they allow us to use a simple saliva sample before and after a complete treatment to be able to comparatively determine the changes that could have occurred in their DNA.

It is obvious that if the DNA changes significantly in the important and precise parts that make it up, and that guide an evolution from within, we would have the scientific basis for the fact that real change is possible. In fact it has been shown that cells are capable of expelling new biomolecules of different sizes into the blood, and it is now possible to detect this in liquid biopsies. That means, that after making the change, it can be demonstrated scientifically that the change is reflected in the blood.

If it is scientifically proven that certain biomolecules are related to changes experienced, we would be facing a great discovery, it would be a milestone in human history, to discover that change and evolution are possible and real, from the inside and towards the outside. And this evolutionary leap would be produced by the use of a standardized method using Ayahuasca and that has been tested for over 10 years. It is the method we use and that we are willing to teach to anyone wanting to learn it. That is why we have created the Conscious School and the European School of Ayahuasca  training cycles. So that many people from all over the world can learn that which can not be taught, but only remembered. We dedicate ourselves to the recovery of people’s memories, of what they are because we know that when an individual changes the perception of himself, a process of inner evolution that is unstoppable begins.

If scientists were to discover a biomarker that relates the cause to the effect on people who carry out the process we propose, we would be scientifically demonstrating that epigenetic change is associated with this proposition.

By observing how the process of organic transformation works – when there is evolution – you can see that the same sequences occur in life changes. It is a conscious observation that I have been carrying out on thousands of people, that when the internal changes, the external starts to change. The inner is not only molecular, it is also subatomic, because when the consciousness awakens and the uncontrollable soul of a person emerges to direct a process of change, the person feels it as a rebirth, and although the awakening of consciousness or birth of spiritual consciousness still can not be scientifically proven, we also see in ourselves and thousands of participants that this happens, and that it is a milestone that marks a before and after in our life.

Perhaps the erroneous conclusion that if I take these natural remedies and do these therapies, then my life will change could arise. We already know that there are thousands of people who have been taking ayahuasca for many years and their lives have not changed in practically at all, even if they do all kinds of therapies as well. Therefore we decided to create a standardized method that accompanies and supervises internal transformation processes, provided the participant decides it, that they will a systematically confront the authenticity of this decision.

It is possible that DNA is the incarnate consciousness in a molecule travelling through the universe, and that it has arrived on the earth fertilized by the conditions of life that exist in this planet, allowing that it initiate an evolutionary process that gives rise to the birth of a living organism capable of creating consciousness. But it has been seen over thousands of years, that being conscious does not guarantee consciousness. All human DNA has the option to awaken consciousness, but not every human being has accessed that option. The reason is fundamentally the separateness that the humans has from their essence, the neglect of their own being, the implantation of belief systems that replace their true spiritual, cosmic and evolutionary nature.

If a person drinks a lot of ayahuasca but still follows his own belief system and values, this will interrupt the journey of consciousness and avoid their awakening, so the person will restrict the evolutionary process. Without the awakening of consciousness, transformation is not possible. The main reason for resistance to change and awakening is that the subject is clinging to the lie of what he or she is but that which also gives him or her so much security and confidence.

What is the point of changing DNA if we are not willing to change our life project and the perception of ourselves? In this sense we could affirm that the awakening of consciousness is the natural result of those who dare to dismantle the belief systems they hold. An act of tremendous courage. And it does not depend on drinking thousands of ayahuasca shots to expand awareness – which can be a fallacy and a true self-deception – but a conscious decision to leave behind what is not, based on respect for the evolutionary nature that we have, that propels us in a thousand ways to realize a holistic interior transformation, from the organism and even from thoughts, from the body and even from the soul, from the cells, to the relationships, from emotions and to each of our decisions.

As I said at the beginning: it is our essential need and our terrible resistance.

The journey on which we are all is one of consciousness and toward the consciousness; consciousness has created the brain so that through it consciousness is manifested onto the material plane. DNA has been the nexus of this phenomenon because of its extraordinary ability to mutate and evolve.

It is now through the observation of DNA that we have the chance to be conscious of the process of evolution that we are “maybe” going through. But if this study does not arrive or takes years, it still does not prevent many people from experiencing the magic of transformation in their life, and that they can use their own consciousness to observe the precious phenomenon of change in themselves. All of us who are doing it are the scientists of our own evolution, which we are naturally enjoying in our lives.

Alberto José Varela

If you are interested in more information about bring part of the group of people who will perform the treatment for the scientific study, or want to carry out one of the processes that we propose for 3 months write to: epigenetica@innermastery.es

AYAHUASCA AND EPIGENETICS (2nd Part). The first steps towards scientific research are being taken.

Click here for a complete listing of  information of all the 2017 Ayahuasca International Retreats Calendar . It includes subsequent links to information, prices and booking procedure for each retreat.

Switzerland, July 30 to August 11

Marbella, August 2 to 6

Berlin, August 3 to 6

Ibiza, August 3 to 6

Sweden, August 7 to 13

Eindhoven, August 9 to 13

Barcelona, August 9 to 13

Marbella, August 10 to 14

Salzburg, August 10 to 15

Torino, August 10 to 15

Munich, August 10 to 15

Berlin, August 17 to 20

Norway, August 17 to 20

Marbella, August 17 to 20

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Ionic Air Purifiers and Ozone Safety

One of the exciting ways Alen is helping people Live Better is with Ozone Safe Ionizers in our air purifiers. An Ionizer is an electrical device which emits positive and negative charges into the air, causing particles to stick together and become larger. This process allows for Alen True HEPA Air Purifiers to catch a larger number of airborne particles more easily.

Air purifiers with Ionizers should not be confused with Ozone Air Purifiers, which use ozone to clean the air and create or emit hazardous ozone.

What is the difference between Air Purifiers with an Ionizer and Ozone Air Purifiers?
Negative ions are atoms which have gained an electron or two, giving them a small electric charge. Used alone, negative ionizers are not effective in removing particles from the air. However, True HEPA air purifiers with an incorporated ionizer provide a more efficient means of trapping airborne irritants on the filter—similar to dust on a television screen. All Alen True HEPA Air Purifiers include an optional Ozone Safe Ionizer and use this method for improving filtration efficiency.

Many confuse Ozone Safe Ionizer Air Purifiers with Ozone Generating Air Purifiers. It is important to ensure any air purifiers you place in your home do not contribute to unsafe levels of ozone. Ozone is a highly reactive form of oxygen that is beneficial in the upper atmosphere, where it shields the Earth's surface from the sun's harmful ultraviolet light. However, ozone in the Earth's lower atmosphere, where we live and breathe, is a harmful air pollutant. Breathing ozone may cause damage to lung, throat, and nasal tissue.

All Alen True HEPA Air Purifiers are ozone-safe, certified by the California Air Resources board to produce ozone emission concentrations less than 0.050 parts per million.

Does this information apply to you? Are you interested in learning more about Ionic Air Purifiers? Visit our Air Purifier Shop Page or call an Alen Air Quality Specialist 800-630-2396 to learn more.

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11 Scandinavian Lighting Tricks to Add a Cozy Glow to Your Home

11 Scandinavian Lighting Tricks to Make Your Home Feel Cozy

11 Scandinavian Lighting Tricks to Fill Your Home With Hygge | Use lots of candles!

Candles, Candles and More Candles

It cannot be said enough that people in the Nordic countries love lighting candles. According to Meik Wiking, author of The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living, about half of Danish people light candles at least four days a week and 31% light six or more candles each time. Candles create a warm, flickering light. The movement of the flame creates a sense of life and energy. There are several ways to harness the warm energy of candle light in your home decor including:

  1. Glass candle holders amplify the light - If you want to increase the illumination factor of candles, then try using glass candle holders. The glass gets "filled up" with the light of the candle and increases the total amount of light. Try this trick in the dining room so you can have romantic candlelight dinners while still being able to see your food.

  2. Candle holders with holes in them create beautiful patterns - With opaque, perforated candle holders, you can make beautiful shapes with light and shadow. This increases the dreamy, imaginative effect of your home decor.

  3. Use wax LED candles for in the windows or low-trafficked areas of the house - It's always wonderful to walk through hallways and staircases lit by the magical glow of candlelight. And especially during the winter, we like to light up our windows for outside travelers at night. What we don't love is fire hazards. Putting LED candles made of wax in these areas gives you that same flickering, cozy glow without the worry of starting a fire.

11 Scandinavian Lighting Tricks to Fill Your Home With Hygge | Avoid overhead lighting

Limit Overhead Lighting

To quote the Swedish fashion and lifestyle Youtuber Jenny Mustard: "Ceiling lighting is where hygge goes to die." Hygge, of course, being the Danish word that describes that calm, cozy, joyful feeling that you get from gathering with close friends around the campfire. Creating mood lighting is very important in making a room hygge and nothing is less hygge than stark overhead lighting that makes you feel like you're being interrogated. There are a few ways to make your electric lighting warmer and cozier and these include:

  1. Using floor and table lamps instead of overhead lighting - Scandinavian lighting in interior design tends to focus on several light sources. This creates areas of darkness as well as light. This contrast adds a sense of mystery and wonderment. You can also use a few hanging pendant lights to create this effect as long as they're not too bright.

  2. Install warm colored light bulbs with a low lumen number - When selecting light bulbs for their coziness factor, select bulbs that are warm white or soft white in color. You want to avoid bright white lights and also lights that are way to yellow. A bulb's lumen number determines how bright it is, the higher the brighter. 1000 lumens is a comfortable brightness where you can still see quite well. This is good if you like to read, knit or do other crafty things in the evening. Lower lumens create nice mood light for entertaining guests and watching TV.

  3. Dimmers create cozy, warm light - Have you ever noticed that restaurants often turn down their lighting at night. Dimmers are important for creating that "cozy conversations over dinner" atmosphere. Bright overhead lighting has the exact opposite effect (there's a reason why the bright cafe lighting in Edward Hopper's Nighthawks doesn't look very warm and inviting). If you do have a lot of overhead lighting that you don't want to replace with lamps, then a dimmer is an inexpensive way to make your room glow with warm, low light.

11 Scandinavian Lighting Tricks to Fill Your Home With Hygge | Use string lights to create a festive atmosphere

Fairy Lights Create a Romantic and Festive Atmosphere

Strings of lights, often called fairy lights, open your room up to many creative possibilities. No longer just for Christmas, light strings can be used in just about every room of the house to create a magical, romantic or festive atmosphere. White not good for illumination, per se, fairy lights are a creative way to give your home a little something extra, especially when you're hosting parties and entertaining.

  1. Place on or around the dining table to make food look more festive - This is a particularly good idea if you're hosting a potluck or serving food buffet style. You can string the lights around the dishes or even hang a string above the table. This "highlights" the food and makes it look as good as it hopefully tastes

  2. String along the balcony for nighttime magic overlooking the city – One of the joys of urban living is being able to enjoy cocktails on the balcony while taking in the city lights. You can capture some of that city sparkle by stringing fairly lights around the railings of your balcony or from the roof if your balcony is covered.

  3. String up lights in the living room during a party - Whether you live in an urban loft or in the suburbs, stringing up lights from the ceiling is a great way to brighten the mood of your house at parties. If it's not a holiday like Christmas or Halloween, then there's really very few decorating options to signify, "This is a party, people!" But stringing up fairy lights is a cheap and quick way to get your guests into the party mood.

11 Scandinavian Lighting Tricks to Fill Your Home With Hygge | Use the outdoor temperature of light

Bring the Outdoors in Through Lighting

Scandinavian interior design is heavily influenced by nature. That's why the Nordics incorporate a lot of wood and natural fibers into their home decor schemes. Even the selection of warm indoor Scandinavian lighting nods to natural phenomenon. According to Weiking, the most "hygge" light temperature is 1,800 K, which is the temperature of sunsets and wood burning in a fire. But there are other ways to add a sense of naturalness to your lighting scheme such as the following tips:

  1. Make or buy branch shaped lighting - The beauty of trees has inspired many designers to make indoor lighting with branching forms. Some lights more overtly look like plant forms while others are more abstract. You can select the shapes that look best in your overall decor scheme. You can also wrap fairy lights around an interesting branch you foraged outside for a fun and affordable DIY project.

  2. Create "Northern Lights" with LED light strips – The aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, are enjoyed almost exclusively by the Scandinavians and the small number of other people who live in the far north. You can recreate this stunning natural effect in your home with colored LED light strips. You can place them in a discreet area and let them shine the colors onto your walls (white walls work best). You can set them to shine blue or green for a calming effect and to crate the greenish blue glow of the aurora.

By following some of these tips, you can add a warm and cozy glow to your home. When the light in your home is sufficiently hygge, you may notice that you feel a greater sense of wellbeing as well as being less stressed. Scandinavian interior design aims precisely for this effect. Indeed, they have a lot of lessons we can learn about making our homes happier places.

Looking for more Scandinavian interior inspiration? Check out these 10 totally doable rooms!

10 Totally Doable Scandinavian Room Decor Ideas

View/Add Comments (2)

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JJR on Dec 05, 2017:

The Northern Lights aren't exclusive to Scandinavia, you can see them in most of Canada as well as Northern States. The Kp index in many parts of the populated areas are the same as in Scandinavia.

Aarsun Woods on Dec 02, 2017:

Stunning !!! lovely tables for your site no 3 and no 9 are great .....Visit :-) AarsunWoods.com for more ......

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Choosing the right diet and fitness regime plays a crucial role in management of Diabetes, obesity and other metabolic disorders. A patient and disease specific approach makes the cornerstone of these regimes at Dharma Diabetes & Metabolic Clinics. Our dieticians work hand in hand to make the right food choices for our patients whilst they still could enjoy the food they eat.


HomeAir ShowAerial ActsT-28 Trojan Thunder

T-28 "Trojan Thunder" 6-Ship Formation Team

T-28 “Trojan Thunder” 6-Ship Formation Team Factsheet

The T-28 is a piston-engine military trainer aircraft which was designed in the late 1940’s to replace the T-6 Texan as the military’s primary two-seat trainer.  It was the “next generation trainer” for a post-WWII U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy, serving as both an advanced trainer aircraft and a combat aircraft for light attack. Actively flown throughout the 1950’s and into the 1980’s, the T-28 was also used by the Republic of Vietnam Air Force and the French Air Force.

Due to its nimble flight characteristics, T-28s were used to instruct advanced flight maneuvers, such as formation flying, aerobatics, instrument flying, ground attack missions, and aircraft carrier operations.

Between 1949 and 1957, exactly 1,948 T-28’s were built by the North American Aviation Corporation. Able to attain a maximum speed of 343 miles per hour, the Trojan B, C, and D models are powered by a single 1,425 horsepower Curtiss-Wright nine-cylinder radial engine which was originally developed for the B-17 bomber during WWII.

The T-28 saw extensive combat service in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War serving as the first U.S.-flown strike aircraft on December 26, 1961.  It continued in-theater flown by Laotian, Thai, and South Vietnamese pilots throughout the war in a counter-insurgency and interdiction role.  It was also flown by U.S. pilots in covert operations under Operation Jungle Jim in the early 1960’s and later by the First Air Commando Division Special Ops “Raven” pilots in Laos. Other combat uses included CIA-sponsored operations in the Belgian Congo and during the French Colonial War in Algeria.  The last combat operation of the T-28 was during a Coup d’etat in the Philippines where rebel forces bombed the presidential palace in December of 1989, where upon they were chased from the skies by U.S. Air Force F-4 Phantoms.

Following its final training flight conducted by the U.S. Navy in early 1984, the T-28 was decommissioned from service and sold to private civil operators. Many, like our own members of Trojan Thunder today, continue to celebrate this legendary aircraft by flying them in air shows to the delight of aircraft enthusiasts everywhere.


No hard feelings

Reconciliation after competition is more a masculine than a feminine trait

Science and technologyAug 13th 2016 edition

MEN have a long history of fighting with one another for dominance, but why such duels did not leave tribal unity in tatters and warriors less capable of working together to fend off attacks from predators and hostile clans remains a mystery. One common theory is that men more readily make up after fierce physical conflicts than do women. And an experiment run recently at Harvard University, by Joyce Benenson and Richard Wrangham, and published in Current Biology, suggests this may be true.

Tribal contests like Yanamamo clubbing duels, in which men take turns bashing each other on the head until one surrenders or is knocked out, were not regarded as suitable for the Harvard campus. The researchers speculated, however, that less lethal competitive sports could stand in for such pursuits, given that they are standardised, aggressive and intense confrontations which take place in front of an audience.

To this end, they collected 92 videos of male championship tournaments in tennis, table tennis, badminton and boxing, and 88 videos of female tournaments in these sports. Altogether, athletes from 44 countries were involved. Participants in the sports in question are expected by convention to make (peaceful) physical contact after the competition—by shaking hands after the racket sports or by embracing after boxing. Dr Benenson and Dr Wrangham timed these contacts, which they predicted would last longer in men than in women, and also recorded any spontaneous follow-ups, such as embraces after racket sports, arm-touching and pats on the back, which they predicted would be more common in men than in women.

On both counts they were right. Men made post-match physical contact for longer in all of the sports. In tennis, the male median contact time was 1.4 seconds while the female median was 0.8 seconds. In badminton it was 1.1 seconds for men and 0.8 seconds for women. In table tennis it was 0.6 seconds for men and 0.3 seconds for women. Boxing—the sport closest to real fighting—showed the greatest difference. Males made contact for 6.3 seconds after a bout. Females did so for 2.8 seconds.

Men also engaged in more touching after the handshake or post-boxing embrace. In tennis 42.5% of the matches between men concluded with the winner touching the loser’s arm or body in addition to the handshake, while only 12.5% of women’s matches ended this way. Ping pong showed similar results, with 33% of the male matches involving additional physical contact between the competitors while female matches showed none. (The high net in badminton and the many individuals interacting with fighters after boxing bouts made it impossible to monitor post-handshake contact in those sports.)

These results do not prove the hypothesis Dr Benenson and Dr Wrangham are testing, but they do support it. And such male bonding may go back a long way into the evolutionary past: similar differences between the sexes in post-conflict reconciliation have been seen in chimpanzees. Whether that means women are leaving the field of battle with more of a grudge than that borne by menfolk is a question for another experiment.

This article appeared in the Science and technology section of the print edition under the headline "No hard feelings"

Reuse this contentThe Trust Project


There are many challenges associated with performing algorithmic trades in the real world. Despite these challenges, there are a dozen well-known names in the algorithmic trading world and more players are trying their  hands in this business every year.

The nature of this industry can be characterised as heavily reliant on technology: whoever has developed and properly executed a novel technological advancement instantly gains an edge in the competition for faster and more lucrative trades. Accordingly, at the core of these companies’ efforts lies research and development into the cutting edge of financial technologies. In this article we will take a look into the most promising innovations in algorithmic trading and try to predict what the trading world could look like in the near future.

For the purpose of convenience we will group the innovations by the goal their developers are trying to achieve. These will be:

  • Improvements in speed. The faster one performs an order, the greater the amount of options they have to choose from. This category will touch upon developments in networking and hardware, low-level programming languages, and the collocation principle.

  • Research into alternative sources of data. There is quite a lot of crucial financial information one can extract from the loads of freely-available data. In this category we will describe the extraction of social network and text data on the Internet, opinion mining, sentiment, information spreading, image data analysis and some exotic sources of information.

  • Application of neural networks and machine learning. This technology has recently appeared in the scopes of algorithmic traders. We will look into financial machine learning systems and recurrent neural networks.

Improvements in speed

Improvements in speed  arguably comprise the core interest of all algorithmic traders in the industry. Since the majority of algorithmic trades these days are High Frequency Trades, the speed of order delivery as well as that of the order throughput are crucial factors of success.

Overall improvements in networking hardware and software

IGo West, a joint venture to build the fastest communication line possible between the Chicago and Tokyo trading hubs, was launched in 2016. The communication line was designed with an assortment of communication technologies, including microwave radio towers, high-speed fiber-optic datalines and reinforced undersea cables. The initiative is comprised of IMC, Jump Trading, KCG Holdings, Optiver, Tower Research, DRW’s Vigilant division, Virtu Financial and XR Trading.

Such technological diversity is used due to the tradeoffs different technological solutions have. Microwave communication has been actively used and developed for more than 60 years and is favored for its low latency of transmission. In real-life conditions microwave communication lines transmit information with approximately 2-6 times less latency than fiber-optic lines. This happens largely due to the fact that that radio waves propagate through air faster than light does through glass. In addition, radio towers can typically form the shortest communication line, while physical communication lines have to adjust to terrain geometry.

Fiber-optic cables, however, have a lot of advantages on the practical side. First of all, they typically have higher throughput (as in the amount of data that they can deliver in a certain time frame) than their microwave analogues. Secondly, they are far more reliable and require less maintenance. Microwave towers depend upon clear line of sight and suffer severe loss of intensity should various weather phenomena, such as rain or clouds, appear between them.

In the end, the team behind the project attempted to balance cost vs. benefit as they connected the two hubs, a problem complicated by the terrain challenges they faced. Keeping in mind the sheer cost and effort required to bring such a project to life, one can imagine the importance of latency in algorithmic trading.

FPGA chips

FPGA chips or Field-Programmable Gate Arrays are integrated circuits that can be configured by a customer after manufacturing (hence the term, “field-programmable”). These incredibly sophisticated hardware devices are quite often used in high-frequency trading applications.

No hardware or software engineer would argue that a task implemented in hardware would run faster than the same task implemented in software abstraction. Conversely, the software layer is the medium that allows hardware devices to perform various tasks. FPGA chips are devices that turn the tables a bit in that they allow customers to design and program their custom hardware logic into the chip’s so-called logic fabric without having to go through the actual hardware manufacturing process.

The process of modifying the architecture of an FPGA chip is highly-sophisticated: first, the user designs the structure and functional behavior of their target model in a Hardware Description Language (HDL), a specialized computer language that allows for computerized hardware model simulation. Then, a special software is used to generate a netlist - a description of a model’s individual hardware components and their connectivity. Further on, dedicated software uses the netlist to produce a map - a virtual representation of the target model’s hardware architecture, adapted to fit the chips’ specifications. This map can then be simulated and validated using various analysis techniques. Finally, once the map is validated, a binary file is generated and booted into the FPGA chip.

The advantages of using FPGA technology come from its ability to parallelize a lot of simple custom tasks rather than building a universal computation solution, like the general-purpose Central Processing Units we have in most consumer electronics. One of the typical FPGA applications in HFT trading scenarios is implementing the so-called marketfeed handler, a device that can parse and process multiple data feeds with astonishing speed. Here one can imagine an FPGA device as a factory with lots of workers that were taught to perform a single task, while a CPU would be a firm with just a handful of expert, broadly-taught workers. Hence, FPGA systems are best used in conjunction with other types of hardware and software to tackle different tasks with the best-suited technology.

One may cavil that Application-Specific Integrated Circuits or ASICs can be customly designed like their FPGA counterparts and produced much cheaper on a wider scale. ASICs are integrated circuits that are designed to perform a single type of task with a substantial workload.   However, ASICs cannot be modified after production and HFT calls for constant methodology reevaluation and an iterative approach. Traders constantly want to be able to retool their devices with the fastest working algorithms to stay on top of the game.

Colocation is probably the simplest and most ingenious innovation we look at in this article. Why would one tussle with network latency between the servers when instead they could bring the servers together?

Colocation data centers lease server floor space with all the accompanying services: energy, cooling and connectivity, as well as physical and disaster security. Businesses of all sizes can take advantage of these services: they can typically rent any space they want: from a single rack to an isolated room with a custom access policy. Various connectivity tiers are also available to satisfy the different demands of renters. Many businesses find such services appealing: thanks to economies of scale they can deploy their server infrastructure in an advanced environment for a fraction of the cost of owning and maintaining your own server space.

However there is one more benefit to choosing colocation: renters can establish fast horizontal connections between each other. Thanks to that capability, many latency-sensitive industries have switched to colocation services and algorithmic traders are no exception. They cluster their trading infrastructure around that of financial data providers and trading platforms, taking full advantage of ultra-fast data connections, basically, within one building. In this way they are able to fetch data and execute orders as fast as possible.

Such an ingenious feature, thanks to its simplicity and effectiveness, has quickly gained popularity in various latency-sensitive industries, including trading. Recently progressive crypto-exchange HitBTC has opened their doors to algorithmic traders in the LD4 data center in London. This information can provide an insight into how fast the innovations are carried on into the crypto world.

Research into alternative sources of data

Accounting for the human factor has been an integral part of making trading decisions for as long as trading has existed. The core idea behind this practice is that successful trading decisions are typically made in accordance with some facts of nature or human behavior that are revealing to the trader.

In this section we will take a look at how people analyze these natural processes and human opinion to perform successful trades.

Social networks and text data

It’s no wonder that social media is at the forefront of the modern information exchange. Social media users are probably the largest and most involved market audience in the world: out of 4.4 billion Internet users, 3.5 billion actively use social media, which makes up an incredible 79% active audience. The audience is also relatively uniform, with the average user having 7.6 social media accounts. In addition, on average users spend 142 minutes a day on social media. All this info makes it obvious why social media can be used to analyze sentiment, social attitudes towards specific trading entities and events. With the number of traders naturally expanding and a greater degree of opinion vocalization on the Internet it makes perfect sense as a group opinion resource.

Sentiment analysis is also referred to as opinion mining. This technique of data processing has been known for quite some time, but appeared in the spotlight with the advent of two modern-day phenomena: social networks and machine learning:

  • Social networks have enabled and popularized mass opinion vocalization, resulting in enormous datasets of publicly available opinionated text-based information: for instance, every 60 seconds Facebook users post 510k of comments and update 293k statuses.

    Opinion mining technologies have followed this trend, permitting marketing and political analysts to extract valuable data on public opinion;

  • With machine learning algorithms, particularly neural networks, developers have benefited a lot from social networks: they can use these enormous amounts of publicly available text data to train and test their neural network algorithms.

    In addition, machine learning algorithms allow developers to decode opinion from data without actually formalizing specific rules for inferring meaning from content.

Information spreading

Social media enriches opinion data with two additional qualities: locality and impact. When analyzing opinion data it is crucial to understand not only what people say, but what opinions attract attention and how they spread, both in terms of locality and hierarchy. As it is the case with all kinds of trading, getting this information first means getting an edge over your competition.

Social media allows data miners to easily track what area and language the information originates from and see local and global trends. Tagging, which is used throughout social media, does some of the work for the sentiment analysts, pre-labeling pieces of information and sorting them into categories.

Coupled with impact, or the amount of attention these pieces of information have collected with likes and views, social media becomes a very powerful resource in analyzing sentiment and predicting its direction.

Satellite imagery

One cannot go about describing alternative sources of data without mentioning the story of the RS Metrics company, founded by the Diamond brothers back in 2009. Coming from a background in finance and satellite data processing, they decided to combine their expertise to backtest a theory: what if the number of cars in the parking lots of Walmarts correlates to the company’s revenue? After three months of testing their proposal on the historical satellite images of Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s and McDonald’s, they had a match - the data co-aligned. They went on to found RS Metrics (with RS standing for “remote sensing,” a term from the scientific world) and got a big break in 2010 when Neil Currie from bank UBS was able to make an accurate prediction on Walmart stock price in his quarterly earnings preview.

These days satellite data processing has turned into a competitive industry with companies like Orbital Insight, Maxar (previously DigitalGlobe), Image Sat International, UrtheCast, Descartes Labs and Planet Labs competing to provide the most accurate and actionable insights from satellite images. Such data is used across a variety of industries to assess the extraction of natural resources, agriculture, large-scale production and the influence of natural phenomena as well as human traffic. With such powerful tools, only a client’s imagination is the limit of what these companies can do.

There have been concerns about the legality of using satellite data for trading insight: particularly, the lack of equal access to such data, as satellite images carry a hefty price tag. However, using such data does not break any rules: it is neither insider info, nor an illegally gained asset. With the satellite data industry growing so fast we can expect this resource to become cheaper, fast.

Application of machine learning

Even the least technology-savvy people have heard about machine learning technology (ML). In the last 5 to 10 years there has been an increase in the application of this methodology: it is used from recognizing device owners with their face to giving accurate healthcare recommendations. It is crucial to understand that machine learning concerns a broad area of scientific study of algorithms that perform tasks without needing explicit instructions, while the so-called neural networks, a technology that is somewhat similar to actual biological neural networks, is a subset of machine learning.

The benefit of this technology comes from not needing to develop or formalize a logic model for the application. In order to make a functioning neural network application, a developer just needs to take a sufficient data set of sample data and “train” the model - mark out correct and incorrect assumptions made by the software. The software uses this information to make ever-more-accurate conclusions until the necessary level of accuracy is reached. The process is fairly similar to that of artificial selection - only the necessary traits are carried on to the subsequent generations of the product.

With such a simplified method of developing a working algorithm for complex phenomena, it’s no wonder machine learning has made its way to the trading world. To get things started, we can return to a familiar story to explore neural networks - counting the number of cars in parking lots. When Tom Diamond was testing his assumptions about the number of cars in parking lots, he started off with an app that would count the number of clicks he made over the cars in the photo. But imagine you needed to count the number of cars in the parking lots of several distribution chains over tens or hundreds of cities. Here is where neural network algorithms come in handy: a model can be trained to recognize empty/occupied parking spaces. Modifying it to work in different lighting or weather conditions makes it even more versatile. The result is a software that can tremendously speed up data inference from satellite photos.

But the major point of ML’s application to trading are the trading algorithms themselves. Such algorithms typically produce the following information:

  • The amounts traded

  • The quantity of trades

  • The point of submitting a trade

  • The point of exiting a trade

But as it is with other complex systems, the devil is in the details. Hedge funds invest significant resources into researching and developing such algorithms and make sure their findings are guarded against the outside world. Their algorithms are some of the most expensive pieces of software in the world.

Recently, there has been an increased interest in Long Short Term Memory Networks and Gated Recurrent Unit Networks. These are different varieties of neural networks that have generated interest due to their functional capabilities in the training process. What can certainly be said about these trading algorithms in particular and trading algorithms as a whole is that it is unlikely that there is an algorithm that could provide noteworthy results for a prolonged period of time: the nature of trading processes is an ever-shifting thing.

In this article we have reviewed the most recent and significant practices and pieces of technology that are being researched and successfully applied in the algorithmic trading world. These innovations not only reward their owners and developers; people stand to benefit from such developments as a whole, as with time these innovations find ways into our daily lives. With the amount of resources that are being invested into research in the trading world, trading will soon join the military and the space industry as a workhorse that is pushing technological development forward.

TradeSanta is not a registered broker-dealer or an investment advisor. You must trade and take sole responsibility to evaluate all information provided by this website and use it at your own risk.

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EFT for Releasing Trauma That Keeps You from Achieving Your Goals

It's part of the human condition that we all have at least one painful event from the past which is preventing us from achieving at least one of our goals. (And yes, that includes Oprah, Goddess of Achievement and Success, who has both written and spoken about this.)

You might be wondering what I mean by that. To illustrate it, let me tell you the story of my client, Amy (name changed to protect privacy).

Amy came to me for help achieving her professional goals. In our first session, I asked her the following question:

If there was a reason why you wouldn't be able to achieve your professional goals, what would it be? With no hesitation, she replied, "Because I don't deserve that kind of success."

Once she said that, in order to release that limiting belief and everything tied to it, all I had to do was follow the thread. Here's what the beginning of that thread looked like:

I don't deserve that kind of success because I'm bad.

I believe I'm bad because my dad used to tell me that when I was little.

After she gave me this information, to continue following the thread, I needed her to give me specific examples of her father telling her this.

Why? Because these traumatic experiences had given rise to the limiting beliefs, "I don't deserve success," and "I'm bad," (as well as others), and unless you tap to release the root of a limiting belief, that belief will grow right back.

So we tapped out all of the traumatic memories until there was no longer any pain, fear, or stress associated with them. Then we tapped out the limiting beliefs that had sprung from them, and then she was free, free, free to achieve her professional goals.

One of these goals was to make $400,000 that year. When I ran into her a few months after completing our work together, she shared with me that she had not only achieved that goal (which had very recently seemed outlandish to her), she had exceeded it.

And that, my friend, is the power of tapping.

While achieving her goal of earning $400,000 was a dream come true, it was far from the only benefit of the healing we did in order to release the inner obstacles that were holding her back.

In addition to achieving this life-changing goal, she also received the following benefits:

  • Healing of emotional wounds caused by past traumas

  • Freedom from the fear that was triggered in circumstances which reminded her of past traumas

  • Much improved self-esteem, as beliefs like I don't deserve success, and I'm bad dropped away

  • Spontaneous forgiveness of her father as the wounds that resulted from his harsh treatment of her were healed

  • Freedom from the shame that had burdened her throughout her life as a result of her painful childhood experiences

Perhaps you're thinking that this doesn't apply to you. Maybe it doesn't, but I'm guessing it does.

Perhaps you think that you haven't experienced anything painful enough to qualify as "trauma," but I'm guessing you have.

Here's why: Most people think of trauma as being only dramatically upsetting and damaging experiences like abuse, serious accidents, violent crime, and the like. But the truth is, according to Webster's dictionary anyway, trauma is simply "an emotional upset."

My work with clients confirms this. Though many of them have told me that they've never experienced trauma, once we begin to unpack whatever issue they've come to me to heal, it quickly becomes clear that they are traumatized.

Even though the memory that has them crying in session with me is of an experience that they've described as trivial or "no big deal," it has traumatized them, and that trauma has given rise to limiting beliefs which are holding them back in virtually every area of their lives.

I've seen this in every client I've worked with over the years, and I've seen it in myself, too. So far as I can tell, it's simply part of how being human works.

To further illustrate how this works, and how you can use what I'm describing for your own healing, let's use the image above.

I created the image above (just the text part of it) using hypothetical examples drawn from my work with clients and students.

Let's go through the first one on the list:

In the image above, the corresponding obstacle is "Financial trauma from student loans." Here's how this could (and often does) prevent someone from achieving their financial goals, and what it might look once it was unpacked in an EFT session:

Even though the loans have already been paid off, the trauma they caused when they were still outstanding is still stuck in the person's body-mind, which causes the following:

  • Stress when they think about money, so that they then avoid thinking about money, which leads to poor financial decision

  • Feelings of unworthiness caused by being in debt and struggling to pay it off

  • Regret about having accepted student loans, leading to self-recrimination, which then leads to self-defeating behaviors

  • Limiting beliefs such as I'll always struggle financially, I'll never be financially comfortable, I don't deserve prosperity, etc.

In order to remove the inner obstacle of past financial trauma caused by student loans, the above painful emotions and limiting beliefs will need to be tapped out, as they are all part of it.

Once that has been done and there is no remaining pain or stress, and no remaining limiting beliefs, when the person thinks about the past financial trauma, and also when they think about the goal of making $200,000 that year, that tapping job will have been completed.

The short answer is: every kind of goal. Professional goals, financial goals, health goals, fitness goals, relationship goals, traveling goals, basket-weaving goals.

Whatever your goals are, chances are you've got at least one inner obstacle to achieving it which is rooted in past pain. Find the pain and the related limiting beliefs, and you will be amazed by how effortlessly and quickly you begin taking action toward achieving the goal.

You will be amazed by how related opportunities seem to drop out of the sky into your lap, and how doors that lead to the realization of your dreams fly open--doors which had previously always seemed locked, and not just locked, but barricaded, and not just barricaded, but with signs that said in big red letters:

I've facilitated this process many, many times, and I've been through it myself with my own goals and the past pain that has formed obstacles to achieving them. It never ceases to amaze me, and even though it may seem too good to be true, I can assure that it is not.

So whatever it is you would like to achieve in your life, I wholeheartedly encourage you to look for the past pain that's keeping you from doing it, and tap.it.out.

If you feel comfortable and motivated enough to do it on your own, go for it! There are tons of resources on my website (including this article) to help you get there.

If tapping on your own isn't your thing, or if you would simply like to have the support and guidance of an experienced professional who knows stuff inside and out, then work with a trained EFT practitioner.

Or, do what many of my clients do, which is tap on your own and with an EFT practitioner.

Whichever of these options you choose, know that I am cheering you on, and I am so excited about the healing and fulfillment that it will lead to.

Heather Ambler is a mindset coach and EFT expert. Through her private practice and online programs, she's helped over 10,000 people in 77 countries to recover from loss, heal trauma, release fears, increase their confidence, and achieve their goals. Click here to schedule a free consultation.

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Cover of 30 Limiting Beliefs that Preven
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I had a great conversation with Dr. Cortney Baker on her podcast, Women in Business. We talked about how to achieve your goals by removing your inner obstacles to success, like fears, limiting beliefs, self-doubt, and money blocks. During the interview, we covered a lot of ground, including what causes these blocks, how to identify them, and how to make sure they don't come back.

This script will help you to identify and release the many aspects of grief over losing your mother. Because love is forever, but grief doesn't have to be.

Generally speaking, low self-esteem does not happen in a vacuum. There are some common childhood experiences which pretty much always lead to low self-esteem, even in children who, prior to these experiences, had healthy levels of confidence and self-worth.

I see this day in and day out in my work with clients. Sadly, the effects of these early wounds to self-esteem can be far-...

In my over 10 years as an EFT practitioner and teacher of EFT, countless people have emailed me, messaged me on Facebook, and commented on my social media posts that they're not getting the results they had hoped for with tapping. Thankfully, if you know what to look for, this is relatively easy to troubleshoot. Here are the most common reasons people don't get good results with...

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Sue Interviewed by Forbes Books!

by Ali Stieglbauer

Are you a leader who struggles with self-doubt or a CEO who sometimes feels like a fraud? If so, you are not alone. Sue’s book provides actionable practices to conquer self-doubt while maximizing your success. You’ll learn to stop chasing the illusion of perfection and eliminate the barriers to your full leadership potential.

Listen to the podcast below to learn Sue’s tools on battling Imposter Syndrome, expressing vulnerability, and the difference between excellence and perfection.

Ali StieglbauerSue Interviewed by Forbes Books!


• The special education learning support program is individualized for each student based on needs from their individualized education plan (IEP).

    The students are pulled in small group either inside the regular education room or in a small group learning environment.

    The goal of the program is to focus on the specific reading, writing, math, and behavior need.

    The student will be progress monitored every other week on their individual goals to be tracked throughout the year.


French Boudoir with Miss Paris

French Boudoir with Miss Paris

Urican puts again the spotlight on France in its new artistic campaign. The brand has chosen the rooms of Jobo Hotel, to capture Clara Lagurgue's (Miss Paris) and Mehdi Zniber's (Garçons By Gervais agency) looks, in a Retro Chic cosy atmosphere. The campaign makes nods to France and its history.

First of all, how the name of the campaign has been chosen.
The boudoir, a room located between the dining-room and the bedroom, would be the scene of spiritual and physical passions, as testified by Marquis de Sade's work entitled Philosophy in the Bedroom.  Men and women would meet, debate and share. This nest was an intimate and safe interlude, enabling the expression of one's self in total freedom, without being judged ; a notion dear to Urican.

Then, the selection of the place.
Jobo Hotel owes indeed its name to Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, Empress of France, better known as Madame Joséphine Bonaparte. The Empress has also gone down in history with her liberated personality and her feeling for an eccentric and unapologetic fashion. These character traits give inspiration to the decoration and the spirit of Jobo Hotel. Thus, in these rooms enshrouded with a sensual, almost unreal atmosphere, the contours of the two bodies are in harmony and mingle to exalt the Urican spectacles.

Eventually, the choice of a collaboration with Miss Paris.
Clara Lagurgue was elected Miss Paris last June. She undoubtedly has a pretty face, but not only. Sporty, musical and gifted with an elegant and stylish vision of French fashion, she also carries human values. She has created a programme for people suffering from unease, that helps them go through what she has herself suffered from.

France will always keep on inspring Urican, by her riches and its unique history as well as her complex and inspirational aspects. Hence the French Boudoir campaign gathers emblematic symbols of style and chic à la française; and offers us a new expression of love by Urican for France.

Photos: Pascal Brizard

« All the French love France, it is true, but not the same. »
Hugo Grotius


10 años

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The alveolar cardboard totem is the perfect support for a solid, light and visible communication during an event or presentation. It has a large communication surface and guarantees a high visibility of the logo.

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Definition of "lacrimal" [lacrimal]

  • Variant of lachrymal. (adjective)

Use "lacrimal" in a sentence
  • "Fleming had earlier made a study of different substances which prevent the growth of bacteria and, inter alia, had come upon one in lacrimal fluid and saliva, the so-called lysozyme."
  • "Indeed, brain regions associated with emotional arousal, including areas of the hypothalamus and basal ganglia, are connected to a section of the brainstem called the lacrimal nucleus that stimulates tear production."
  • "On our eyes there is tear duct, the biggest one is called lacrimal, its job is to produce tear."


Getting Mercury Poisoning - so you don't have to

East Village. $30-$150+  per person.

So here's the thing about Cagen....they have some of the most unique fish that I've ever had.

Cagen Japanese Restaurant on Urbanspoon

I'm going to let you all behind the curtain a bit. Sometimes, reviewing sushi restaurants can be a bit mundane. I have a day job that occupies most of my time, there's Mrs. Sushi Legend to hang out with, and I love fantasy sports and watching (read: pretending I could be on) Jeopardy. Given that, sushi sometimes can take a back seat. That said, to quote Madonna, "Don't cry for me argentina" - I love sushi and this blog, but I'm always going to gravitate towards a restaurant that can show me something new. For me, Cagen was that restaurant when I visited it a few weeks back.

Located in the east village, Cagen immediately ticked all "first impression" boxes. Not only is it tucked away in the basement of a residential building, but it's small; i counted two tables in addition to the 12 seats at the beautiful sushi bar.

The restaurant is the brainchild of Chef Toshio Tomito , a man who used to apprentice under Nobu Matsuhisa on the Iron Chef. It's been open for 18 months, but judging by the lack of traffic on the Thursday night that I went, Cagen has yet to  fully break through into the New York City sushi and restaurant scene. The feedback I got on instagram and Yelp seem to back that up - for whatever reason, Cagen is just not there yet.

The food certainly isn't the root cause - it ranges from good to great. I ordered the Omakase, which in actuality is more of a Kaiseki since it's mainly non-sushi dishes. Part of the omakase included the sashimi platter (pictured bottom right), which is the dish that Pete Wells raved over when he reviewed Cagen for the New York Times. This dish spoke to me because of the sheer variety of fish that featured. Ever had (blank) before? What about (blank)? For me, the highlight was the (blank), but no matter - all were completely new to me. And that's saying something. From speaking with the sous chef, all fish is flown in from around the world and allowed to ripen prior to serving. The result is a series of incredible dishes, which included two pieces of nigiri (Chu-Toro and Akami) above.

As great as the fish is, the problems begin to surface when the non-sushi dishes come out (and there are plenty). Soba Noodles - ground by hand by Chef Tomito every two days - are unique, but ultimately absent of strong taste. Other dishes, like the beef or the broth are interesting, but overshadowed by unnecessary aspects on the plate.

The Atmosphere is inviting, but loses a little luster with how the lack of other human beings. My main server also seemed incapable of explaining the dishes that I was being served, a problem that stemmed from the top; unfortunately, Chef was one of the least engaging sushi chefs that I've come across during my numerous travels. I have no designs on any level of self-importance - I realize that sushi chefs are often occupied or more focused on their food, and that's fine. But in this case, Chef was mainly focused on the two Japanese customers to my left and his glass of wine, which certainly lessened my enjoyment (and increased my Instagram viewing).

Fortunately, the sous chef was very friendly, and more than able to explain what I was eating. He couldn't do the same for the table near the window, who repeatedly (and loudly) asked their server if the menu featured any Kale. That's right...Kale.

I enjoyed my Cagen experience, but I can see why others are reluctant to visit when such a small sushi bar is lacking on the experience and their omakase offerings. That said, I've heard from them recently that they plan on introducing a "sushi-only omakase", which I would certainly recommend. The fish - and the preparation of the sushi - is too good to completely discount this visual restaurant. Recommended.


Socializing In Person and Online

Even though I haven’t been socializing much in person lately, I still make a point of calling friends and family often.  I visited my parents in person a couple times already this summer.  I saw my nephews and niece on my birthday last month.  I call home at least twice a week.  And I try to contact old college friends a couple times a month.  Even though the last time I saw some of my college friends was three years ago, I still pick up with them like I never left off.  And I’m getting better about dropping in on friends on facebook more often.  I had been avoiding socializing over facebook for a year or two because of how contentious things could get even among friends.  But I think people are starting to adapt and use more caution and tactfulness when online now.  But two or three years ago, it was practically a nasty free for all that I wanted little to do with.  I wound up unfollowing most of my friends and family (and unwisely ended a few friendships too) just because I was tired of all the divisions and fighting.

Originally facebook was a godsend for someone like me who wanted to stay in contact with people but wasn’t exactly sure how to do it.  I readily admit I don’t have great social skills.  I never really have.  But I do get lonely at times, even when I don’t show it.  Sometimes the best thing a person can do with someone who struggles with mental illness and socializing is to make the first move and just ask us how are things going.  I am convinced that much of the stress of modern living is due to us not having as strong as personal social bonds as even our grandparents had.  Life may have been shorter and more physically demanding during the Depression, the World Wars, and definitely during the frontier days, but they were made bearable because people had living and breathing friends they could count on for things as mundane as playing a game of cards or having dinner together after a long day in the fields.  I think if we ever rediscovered the joy of having nearby friends in our neighborhoods and communities, we would see fewer cases of suicide, violent crimes, and drug addictions.  I am convinced that much of these happen because some people don’t have that sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves.

Even though I haven’t been to church services regularly or been part of civic organizations for a few years, I understand why things like church, local sports teams, neighborhood associations, and civic clubs like the Elks Lodge or the Masonic Lodge are popular among those who participate; they give a sense of belonging and community.  I guess I get my sense of community from shared interests in a few of the science groups I’m part of via facebook and through my blog.  I used to be a member of a local writers’ guild.  It’s too bad that group kind of faded away after a few of our members moved away.  A sense of community is important for people.  We are by nature social animals, have been long before recored history.  Even the most introverted humans are more social than many animals in the wild.

Attempting To Lose Weight With Mental Illness and Other Adaptations

Spring is here though I wouldn’t know it by the weather.  Got a few inches of snow on Easter Sunday.  Even though much of it has melted by now, it’s supposed to stay colder than normal early spring for the next few days.  It’s a pity as I was looking forward to warmer weather and fewer excuses for staying indoors most of the time.  As it is I probably won’t go anywhere until the weather finally warms up.

Been adjusting to new sleeping patterns.  I’m going to bed earlier and waking up earlier.  I still sleep only five to seven hours a night so I’m usually awake around sunrise anymore.  During much of the winter I would sleep almost until noon.  But the sleep patterns are changing with the seasons.  So I must adapt accordingly.  I still feel mentally stable even though I still have little desire to socialize much outside of friends and family.  I still call my parents a couple times a week.  Haven’t talked to my college friends much the last couple weeks.  One old friend just had his first child a couple weeks ago, so I’ve been giving him his space as he adapts to fatherhood. Other friends I have lost contact with over the last few years, I want to reestablish contact with these.  I also lost contact with some family members over the last few years I want to reconnect with.  I just got busy with my life and my mental illness got such in some cases I just didn’t want to contact even friends.  I lost many of my old interests over the last couple years.  I haven’t gone fishing in almost two years.  My back can flare up bad enough anymore that I don’t do much outdoors anymore.  I can understand why people with chronic pain can sometimes be short tempered, especially if they were in good health in their younger years.

I’ve been fighting weight problems since puberty.  Yet for the longest time in spite being over weight I didn’t have problems with mobility, pain, etc.  When I was in college I could easily walk over five miles a day in spite weighing over three hundred pounds.  Yet I think the chronic pain is catching up to me.  I can use the car accident I had messing up my back as an excuse, but after the accident I got really depressed and quit doing most physical activities.  I stopped going to the park regularly.  I stopped walking around the old downtown.  I stopped going to the library, preferring to read online articles and audio books instead.  I stopped going fishing.  I even stopped road tripping.  I hate to admit it, but the car accident really took a lot of fire out of me.  At least, I allowed it to take a lot of fire out of me.  To this end I decided I want to get back on top of my health.  I’m giving up on the sugary foods and soda pops.  I’m going to cut the bread out.  I’m cutting out most carbs.  And I started lifting arm weights again.  Oddly I got this idea from a pizza delivery lady who said she lost over fifty pounds just giving up sugar, bread, rice, and pasta.  I am going to do the same thing.  Started this over the weekend.

First I decided to track what I was eating.  Took only a couple days to see I was eating mostly bread, pasta, canned soups, and meat.  Explains why I’m not losing weight.  While I’ll probably end up spending more money on groceries buying healthier and fresher food, if I lose weight it will be worth it.  I’ve lost weight before.  I once lost over seventy pounds in less than a year.  Unfortunately I gained it all back over the course of three years.  One of my blessings is I can usually lose weight pretty fast when I commit to it.  Of course I also have the opposite curse, I can gain weight pretty fast when I am not careful about what I eat.  I tend to be undisciplined about my diet when I go through bouts of depression and anxiety.  But I’m going back to what worked in the past.  Been eating mostly meat and fresh fruit the last few days.  I’ve noticed I have a little more energy even after a few days.  And since I kicked my fast food habit over the winter, I don’t think that will be much of a problem now.  It’s just a matter of giving the time and effort to making the plans work.