Watch Poop Turn To Drinking Water Before Your Eyes

No, it's not a magic trick, unless you consider brilliant engineering a form of magic: The team at Washington-based firm Janicki Industries has designed a machine, dubbed the Omniprocessor, that converts human feces into drinking water and electricity.
As avid social entrepreneur (and America's richest man) Bill Gates shared on his blog yesterday, at least two billion people around the world use latrines without proper drainage waste disposal. What happens next is, without exaggeration, catastrophic. Feces make their way into the drinking water supply and cause diseases that kill hundreds of thousands; some 700,000 children die from illnesses related to poor sanitation each year. Many developing countries don't have the infrastructure to support sophisticated sewage networks. This is where the Omniprocessor — which Gates' foundation is helping to fund — comes in.
The machine converts sewer sludge to drinking water, electricity, and pathogen-free ash by boiling the sludge to extract water vapor, which then undergoes rigorous purification. The dry, solid sludge that remains is fed into a fire to create steam, which is sent into a steam engine that in turn powers a generator that creates electricity to power the processor (with electricity left for the local community to use). Watch the surprisingly elegant process in the video above (and see Gates sample a glass of water that was poop five minutes before). Janicki is preparing to set up an Omniprocessor pilot project in Dakar, Senegal later this year. If all goes well, "poop water" could one day become a standard solution to a serious heath threat.


Journal of pediatric hematology/oncology

Reference values of serum transferrin receptor and sTfR/log ferritin index in healthy adolescents.

PMID 25354256

Adolescence is a period of increased iron requirements, which impact on iron status. The purpose of this research is to determine the reference intervals for serum transferrin receptor (sTfR) and sTfR/log ferritin index (sTfR-F index) in healthy adolescents, and their relation with iron parameters and erythropoiesis. A total of 253 healthy adolescents without overweight, aged 12 to 16 years, were selected in a cross-sectional study. Hemoglobin, red cell indices, reticulocyte hemoglobin content (rHb), reticulocytes, ferritin, transferrin saturation, erythrocyte protoporphirin, erythropoietin, C-reactive protein, sTfR, and sTfR-F index were measured. Changes in erythropoiesis and iron status in the age interval were observed and analyzed, and linear multiple regression was applied to identify the factors that determine the variability of sTfR and sTfR-F index. Mean values for sTfR and sTfR-F index were 1.32 ± 0.3 mg/L (95% CI, 1.3-1.36) and 0.9 ± 0.25 (95% CI, 0.87-0.93). The reference intervals were 0.84 to 1.97 mg/L and 0.51 to 1.44, respectively. sTfR and sTfR-F index values were significantly higher in boys (1.39 ± 0.3 vs. 1.23 ± 0.26 mg/L, P<0.0001 and 0.93 ± 0.37 vs. 0.86 ± 0.22, P<0.04) and decreased with age (P<0.0001 and 0.04, respectively). No changes were recorded in erythropoietin. Age, sex, pubertal status, and ferritin predicted 24.1% of sTfR variability and age, sex, pubertal status, transferrin saturation, rHb, erythrocytes, and reticulocytes predicted 15% of sTfR-F index variability.


Friday, April 22, 2016

PRINCE passed away at the age of 57...

  I don't think that this post will surprise or shock anybody, because since yesterday the news of
Prince's death were spread like a wild fire.
I just felt I had to write down a small post for this very big musician who died so suddenly and under unidentified causes.
  So, Prince was found dead in an elevator yesterday, with the causes of his death not been clear. (So far at least). There are runors that a few days ago he needed an immediate treatment to recover from a drug overdose (other sources say it was a flu), but he refused to stay at the hospital.
 But it really doesn't matter what was the cause of his death; what does matter is that one of the most charismatic musicians and composers passed away so suddenly and at a young age.
 I don't consider myself a fan of Prince, but I did respected him a lot.
R.I.P Prince, the music world is surely a different place without you in it...
P.S: For those who haven't watched the video from the Amercian Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Awards with Prince performing on stage "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" together with Tom Petty, Jeff Lynn Steve Winwood and others, I strongly recommend to click on the following link. Pay extra attention to Prince's guitar solo in the second part of the song.


Your phone number is tied to your Pals Rewards account and should be the same as the number provided in-store at time of Pals Rewards creation.

10 digits, numbers only (ex. 1234567890)
Yes, I would like to receive updates, special offers, and program communications, including reward notices and other information from Petco.


This e means that the book is also in a database.The next time you’re in the library, you might notice a blue E sticker on the spine of some of the reference books. This means that there is a digital version of the book inside one of the Gale databases to which we subscribe. If the E has a yellow dot in the upper left corner, the articles in the book can be found in the World History Resource Center. If the dot is orange, then the book can be browsed or searched in the Virtual Reference Library.


When a hurricane devastates a community, it can feel overwhelming to those of us in safe zones as we figure out how we can help when the need is so great. Harmony Project knows that our mission, to build a stronger and more inclusive community, is realized one voice at a time.

The stories of Hurricane Harvey are only beginning to reach beyond Texas. And while no one community or group of people can solve the challenges faced by the families of Houston, one community or group of people CAN make a difference, one family at a time.

One community rallying around one family, for one purpose: a more hopeful future.

Meet the Negret Family:

Dad and Mom, Gustavo and DeShanna, and their three daughters, Alejandria, Christiana, and Reyna lost everything to Hurricane Harvey.

Harmony Project is partnering with Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) in Houston and “adopting” one family to make a difference in their lives by rallying the Harmony community to respond.

The Negret family lost all of their possessions when more than four feet of water flooded their home during Hurricane Harvey. Without flood insurance, they are faced with rebuilding and replacing all of the basic necessities of life.

The three daughters, including the youngest daughter Reyna, who has autism, are students at TUTS. They LOVE to sing. Gustavo and DeShanna have been married for 17 years, and purchased their home just two years ago.


Centros de Mesa para Bodas Consejos para Ramos de Novia

This can be done with any long hard stem flower. If the flower is hollow you can place a straw thru the stem to help it hold up and it will still get water.

hanging light.  What a beautiful table or buffet design.  lr

Diamonds in the Rough suspended arrangement by Manuel Cuate. Hanging lamps with hand strung crystals, gardenias and showering dendrobium orchid florets. Designed by Manuel Cueta.

ikebana | El Atlas de las Nubes

I also thought about this structure for patriotic arrangements using blue hydrangea as the base, red roses and white callas.

How did I forget lilies? What are the tall, stock flowers among the callas? If you replaced them with two full sized peacock feathers and orchid stems instead of leaves on the bottom tier, this would be pretty much exactly what I pictured.


In our Easy Boating concept we have captured what most boating people feel is the very essence of their pursuit: boating should be easy, safe and enjoyable.


Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Fire, by Kristen Cashore

Hey all!

For the read-along Erika and I organized, we just finished reading Fire, by Kristen Cashore!

So like fro Graceling, I’ve read this before, a few years ago. I enjoyed the story behind Graceling so much better! But this book was a good second book, even though it did suffer a bit of a second-book syndrome.

So unlike in Graceling, Fire doesn’t have graced people specifically. Instead, this world includes monsters - people and animals who are different by their blood, and can be distinguished because they are an unusual color (purple horses, green cats...). Fire, the main character, is a monster - her hair is a mix of reds, golds, oranges, and even pinks, and people are always awed by her. She’s a good archer and is fairly emotional.

Archer, her friend, is (obviously) a master archer, and has quite a unique personality. To be honest, I didn’t like the relationship between Fire and Archer, basically as a ‘friends with benefits’ friendship. I wish they were more like siblings or something, it would have made their connection more believable in my opinion. /: With others, I honestly thought Archer was a bit of a jerk...

However, Brigan was a great character! He was genuinely caring and kind, although he was often gone. He was one of the only ones able to detach himself from Fire, in the sense that he isn’t immediately awed by her. He had this little thing where he just really liked horses.

I still really like Cashore’s rhythm and way of writing! The unique fantasy she creates and the way she puts it across to the readers is so great!

A big negative for me for this book is that even after reading it twice, I still can’t really say what the plot was... I mean I understood the main events, but a 450+ -page book should have a more concrete plot, in my opinion. ... I wish the plot was put forward, rather than the characters and the relations between them. /:

OOOH OH OH one thing I really really liked is how this book basically gave us a part of Leck’s backstory! It would have been cool to have a bit more of his backstory though, maybe a novella?! o.o

Cashore is amazing at bringing out the feels! Like Cassandra Clare, actually! She makes one event that changes everything and leaves you sitting there feeling devastated. In this case, Archer’s death just crushed me!
I think Fire and Brigan go really well together! :3
Done with spoilers

I’m giving this a 3.5/5 feathers! I wish the plot was more developed!

Have you read Fire? What did you think of it? Let me know!

  1. I agree, the plot was a bit muddled. There wasn't quite an "overall goal," and I felt like both Archer and Brigan came and went too much. But I loved how Brigan absolutely loved horses! It was so cute :)

  2. Oh, a read-along sounds like fun! You'll have to let me know when you organize another one - I'd love to join in.

    I haven't read this series yet, but I've heard rave reviews about Graceling and, from my experience, it seems like you aren't alone in thinking this one was a little less exciting than the other one. I'm glad you still managed to like it, though!

    Adorable blog and I love your feather rating system! ^-^ Followed you via BL!!

    Brittany @ http://www.spacebetweenthespines.com/

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this post!
Have an absolutely fabulous day! <3


No Utensils

Kylie's List

Salmon Sandwiches with Dill & Veggie Slaw

These are a great meal for lunch, dinner, guests at a small BBQ: not only are they healthy, but they taste fantastic!

Serves 2

Dill & Veggie Slaw (Ingredients)
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 1/2 red bell pepper or 1 cup, chopped (pieces about the size of a die)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh dill
- 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
- 1 TB fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 1/2 a lemon)
- 1/4 cup chopped tomato (first, remove the watery middle with the seeds - you only want the flesh - it's about one vine ripened tomato, or one romano tomato)
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp fresh cracked pepper

Dill & Veggie Slaw (Instructions)
1) Mix all above ingredients together in a bowl, and refrigerate while you are cooking the salmon (you can make this the night before, if you're trying to save time, just refrigerate covered)

Salmon & Sandwiches (Ingredients)
- 2 (3 oz.) pieces of salmon (skin can be left on), make sure all of the bones are out
- 4 slices of whole wheat bread (get something hardy, not too soft, that will have nice crunch when toasted)
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup guacamole (spread more or less as you like, and make sure you only buy one with healthy ingredients, if you choose to buy pre-made)
- pinch of salt and pepper for each side of the salmon,  for seasoning
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (try to find one from Modena)
- 1/2 cup fresh spinach leaves
- 3 TB avocado oil (separated)

Salmon & Sandwiches (Instructions):

Bread (can be done before or during cooking salmon, whatever you prefer)
1) Turn oven broiler to 'high' for 5 minutes (you can prepare your bread and measure out the ingredients while you are waiting)
2) Add avocado oil to both sides of each piece of bread, laying them on a pan for the oven (you can drizzle it on, or get an oil mister, it only takes a little bit, you don't want it dripping with oil)
3) Place bread in the oven under the broiler for 2 minutes on one side (or longer, if needed, until golden brown), flip, turn the broiler to low-med heat, and broil other side for 2 minutes (or until golden brown - you may want to check each side every minute, as every oven is different, and we don't want burnt bread!)

1) Heat a pan on the stove at medium heat to medium-high heat until you get a drop of water to sizzle and evaporate quickly in the pan (don't burn yourself, just a drop, also, your pan needs to be big enough to comfortably fit your salmon pieces at one time, and have a tight fitting lid to go with it)
2) Season your salmon pieces with salt and pepper
3) When your pan is hot enough, and water has completely evaporated, put 2 TB avocado oil in the pan, spread it around with the head of your fish spatula for even coverage, and place your seasoned pieces of salmon, skin side down, in the pan
4) Let your fish cook on the skin side for about 3 minutes, and adjust your heat if it starts to burn (you want it sizzling, but not burning)
5) When the skin side is done, flip the salmon and cook for another 3 minutes (again, if it seems too hot, turn the heat down to medium, as long as it is still sizzling)
6) After 3 minutes, remove the skin with your fish spatula (they are metal, and the head is longer than a regular spatula, with holes in it)
7) Add your balsamic vinegar to the pan, pouring around the pan and on the salmon, place lid on top immediately after, turn heat off, remove pan from heat, and leave salmon in pan with lid on for 1 minute, then remove salmon and set aside on a cutting board

Layer Your Sandwich
1) Spread your guacamole onto your toasted bread
2) Layer your spinach leaves
3) Add your dill and veggie slaw
4) Place your salmon on last, then add your top piece of bread
5) Slice your sandwiches, and use any leftover slaw for dipping or eating separately as a small side
6) Enjoy!

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Today’s Headlines

Diagonal Street Crossings (Bottlenecks Blog)

LA Businesses Band Together (Times, Daily Breeze)

  • marybeth

    I posted this comment on the blog regarding the Dodger Stadium traffic but as a guest blogger here in the past, I thought I’d post it here as well.

    However, it has to be a full on interagency effort from everyone, the team, the community, the MTA, the police, and most of all the mayor’s office. Pressure from the mayor’s office can move mountains. It would benefit not only the fans, but also the local community. Additionally, it would shift the mindset of people attending the game to a “mass transit” mindset and then it becomes “part of the Dodger experience”. For a team that derives its name from mass transit, you would think there would be a little more effort to do this.

    The Mets advertised mass transit during every game, both on tv and at the stadium, multiple times. It’s time to get some transportation engineers and planners to come together and put together a comprehensive overall plan to make the game a better experience for everyone (thus increasing attendance, in stadium sales because people are in the stadium earlier instead of sitting in their cars, etc.)


What can contribute to Zero Net Energy SO if uraLla wAntS To Take Action To becomE a ZNET... ...Click here to show me whAt's PoSsiBlE! USING lESs Using less energy means community facilities, households and businesses in Uralla reducing their energy consumption, through measures such as increasing insulation or installing energy efficient appliances. All these actions together reduce the amount of renewable energy required to power the town, making the goal of 100% renewable energy easier to reach Import or purchase renewable energy This option involves the town of Uralla committing to purchase or import renewable energy from an existing renewable source, rather than generating it on-site or nearby. Generating energy On-site Generating on site means community facilities households and businesses are generating their own energy on their property, both to off-set their own energy consumption (behind the meter) and potentially export energy for use by others. Battery storage enables energy generated on-site to be stored for later use. GenerATing energy NEarby Means renewable energy comes from places such as appropriately located wind turbines and solar farms Regeneration & Reforestation On-site/ Nearby Bush regeneartion and cultivation, and reforestation on sites in and around Uralla will help regorw and replenish the biomass (wood) consumed by the town for heating. Import Sustainable Wood Thid option means that the community sources firewood from suppliers that has been certified as being harvested sustainably. The Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) Programme for the endorsement of forest certification (PEFC) are the most recognised standards. B


Your Knoxville Attorney Solution for DUI, Bankruptcy, Personal Injury & more.
(865) 691-7900

The tricky truth about being involved in a motorcycle accident in Tennessee

The tricky truth about being involved in a motorcycle accident in Tennessee

Being involved in a motorcycle accident can lead to severe injuries and death, which is why most states have some type of helmet law in effect.  Tennessee is no exception, and its helmet law is outlined in Section 55-9-302 of the Tennessee Code.  That statute states that all drivers and passengers shall be required to wear a crash helmet meeting specific federal standards.  Further, Tennessee Code Section 55-9-304 requires drivers and passengers of motorcycles without windshields to wear safety goggles, face shields, or glasses containing impact resistant lenses.

Failure to wear a motorcycle helmet can result in the charge of a class C misdemeanor, which could result in fines or up to 30 days in jail.  Not all agree with the Tennessee helmet law and there have been attempts to change the law.  For example, Tennessee House Bill 700, proposed during the 2015-2016 legislative session, would have allowed drivers and passengers over the age of 21 to decide whether they want to wear a helmet or not.  That bill did not pass the Senate and, therefore, the old law remains.

Helmet laws are geared towards reducing injuries and fatalities from those injured in motorcycle accidents.  In fact, wearing a helmet decreases a rider’s chance of dying in an accident by 37%.  Data from a study conducted by the Georgia Highway Safety Association revealed 5,010 fatalities in the United States and District of Columbia in 2015, with 123 of those fatalities occurring in Tennessee.  That number placed Tennessee at number 13 out of 51 in the number of deaths due to motorcycle accidents.  Several of Tennessee’s neighboring states made the top of the list as well, with North Carolina coming in at number 4, South Carolina coming in at number 5, and Georgia coming in at number 11.

However, there are many reasons why someone may choose not to wear a helmet while riding on a motorcycle.  Unfortunately, if that person is involved in an accident, not only do they have a greater chance of being killed or seriously injured, receiving a citation, and/or being arrested, they also have a chance of not being able to recover financially for their injuries.

To explain how this scenario could unfold, I will give an example.  Say John is the driver of a motorcycle and is sideswiped by the driver of a car, Sally.  The impact was caused because Sally was checking her texts and swerved out of her lane.  This accident caused John to be ejected from his motorcycle, causing serious injuries, including a brain injury.  A doctor treating John stated that if he were wearing his helmet, he would have received injuries to his body, but it is possible he would not have sustained the brain injury.  The issue here is whether John can recover for the brain injury, since he was violating the law by not wearing his helmet and could have prevented the brain injury if he were wearing the helmet.

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer and this is a scenario and in these very difficult situations, the case will likely need to be brought to court for a resolution.  This is because, many times, the insurance company will either make a low offer to settle the claim or refuse to offer any settlement at all, claiming the motorcycle driver and/or passenger should have been wearing a helmet.  At a trial, the jury would hear the facts of the case and determine whether the injuries were a result of not wearing a helmet, and, if so, decide if the driver of the motorcycle is entitled to recover and to what extent.

If you have been injured in a motorcycle accident, keep in mind that you could still recover for your injuries even if you were not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.  It is crucial for those involved in motorcycle accidents to immediately contact an attorney with knowledge specifically about motorcycle laws and who have handled motorcycle cases.


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  Home > Machine Heads > Schaller® >

Schaller® G Series - Keystone SR - Set - Nickel
SchallerÂ® G Series - Keystone SR - Set

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Prices From: £38.51 Inc VAT

Description Technical Specs

Replacement machine head with 2-screw and banjo bolt as counter fort. Shiny green "keystone" button.

  • All sealed tuners are lubricated with Schaller® special grease for lifetime maintenance-free service.

``` ```


seven-fold necktie

Over the holiday season, five8ths launched a small line of accessories--neckties and pocket squares.

five8ths seven-fold neckties are made using the original method for making neckties. Rather than using a separate interlining fabric, often made of polyester or wool, I simply use one wide piece of fabric, and carefully fold it over onto itself seven times (like origami), matching the edges of each fold, until the tie is formed into its final shape. The resulting layers of fabric form the thickness of the tie, rather than the interlining "sponge". The tip and tail of the tie are hemmed and blind-stitched by hand.

Once folded, the tie is stitched up the back with one long slip-stitch, which is meant to slip back and forth along the length of the tie when the tie is tied and untied, as the tie is cut on the bias and will stretch during the tying process. The slip-stitch prevents the thread from breaking, keeping the folds secured in place.

The tie is finished with a hand-stamped five8ths cotton twill label, and a keeper, which the tail may be tucked into for a put-together look, or left hanging free from for a looser feel.

The hand-labor involved in making each tie is significant--there is one short seam halfway between the tail and tip that is sewn with my sewing machine. Aside from that seam, the rest of the work is done with fingers, needle, and thread.

This tie digs-up and dusts-off what a tie is all about. A piece of fabric worn to accent, punctuate, form a look, express a personality. There is beauty in the simplicity of draping just one piece of fabric around the neck, rather than attaching a spongey-thing to the neckline. The weight is a bit different than an interlined tie, and the knot of a seven-fold tie is generally considered to be nicer.

Seven-fold ties are often made with silk, but the current five8ths line is composed of luxurious Italian linen, cotton, and cotton/linen blends. They hang out well between use.

Available in limited quantities online in four different fabrics: navy, charcoal, brown/tan stripe, and coco.


Experience the "Eighth Wonder of the World" and discover the buttes, mesas, canyons and free standing rock formations that have astounded millions of visitors and movie-goers.

The Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park maintains a visitor center, campground and restaurant, with Navajo-guided tours operating from the visitor center and Goulding's Lodge. A 17-mile, graded dirt loop road within Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park allows breathtaking views of the better known monuments, including Mittens, Totem Pole and the Yei Bi Chai.

entrance museum merrick butte west mitten west mitten
Mittens elephant three sisters camel butte rain god
totem pole yeibichei artist point north window thumb

Photos by EMKotyk


Shortly after the Afikim bus company started operating the public transit routes along the Trans-Samaria Highway, growing numbers of Palestinians began to discover the conveniences and affordability of Israeli subsidized transportation. Inevitably, this new revelation was bound to generate not only a demographic transportation shift, but new, singularly challenging Israeli-Palestinian coexistence dynamics as well.

Departure from Israeli communities and cities along the highway remains relatively familiar for Israeli passengers, as bus lines originate in and travel throughout Area C communities where Palestinians are not permitted free access. However, return lines from Tel Aviv and Petah Tikva, where Palestinian work permits function as virtual border passes, never make it very far before filling up with passengers, the overwhelming majority of whom are often Palestinian.

The initial attempt to petition the Israeli government for a solution to the bus issue was rooted in security concerns on the part of Israeli passengers, who feared terrorism and violence. The government responded by opening exclusively Palestinian bus routes, with the objective of pleasing both populations: the Palestinians could enjoy reliable service, while Israelis could travel without fear of security threats. Israel’s Ministry of Transportation and Ministry of Defense refused to allow these new bus lines to evolve into a form of apartheid segregation, stressing that Palestinians were permitted to take full advantage of all forms of Israeli public transportation. As a result, though reports of Arab verbal, physical and even sexual abuse persist, subjective fears of similar incidents are frequently secondary to the more elementary, objective challenge of how to secure a seat on the bus.

Israeli and Palestinian travelers who wait in line for the 86, 186 or 286 lines during rush hour have little hope of boarding the overcrowded buses. Despite departures every 6 to 12 minutes, a two hour waiting period has become the new normal, with 5, 10 and sometimes 15 buses driving past the stops with no room to allow additional passengers to alight. The situation has gone from worse to intolerable. With the exception of plans to add more lines to the routes to ease congestion, a comprehensive solution is nowhere in sight. Though partially due to inter-ministerial reciprocal pass-the-buck management tactics, this challenge cannot be remedied until Israel and the international powers-that-be dispel ambiguity and determine whether these populations are to be separated, or to coexist.

If segregated buses are apartheid policy, what, then, is the essential nature of a two-state solution? On the flip side, if economic opportunity, coexistence and normalization are to be positioned as primary objectives, what do they look like when populations are riddled with mutual discomfort and potentially explosive distrust? These challenges personify the core of Israel’s apartheid-coexistence paradox. To address this issue effectively is to lay the groundwork for a progressive future for all.

The testing ground is neither here, nor there. It will not be found in refugee camps, nor will it be bred in formidable safe-haven communities. We’re dealing with a dynamic laboratory that travels through space and time, characterized by tens of thousands of involuntary subjects and a myriad of variables. It’s about real people, trying to get by, sharing the same services, looking for ways to make things better for everyone. So while diplomats continue talking about borders, national rights and demographic trajectories, the people whose lives would be most directly affected by negotiations simply want to return home at the end of a long day.

How do we make this work? What’s your solution? Please share your comments. I look forward to passing your suggestions along.


Soul Hiker Fri, 18 Aug 2017 14:10:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 SoulHiker 5 World Views that Need to Be Thrashed for us to Evolve Fri, 18 Aug 2017 14:10:56 +0000 The idea of a world view has two inherent meanings. First it is a personal view of how the world is or should be, and secondly it is a view that is shared or consented to by others not just ourselves. So a world view is both how we personally see the world but at the same time it is something that is based on consensual reality – there is a social dimension to it. In fact, most of what we call world views are not created by any one person but rather a person chooses to adopt a world view that was already supported by others in society. Perhaps this is because he or she feels emotionally inclined to do so or since it fits comfortably with his/her own existing set of beliefs. Allegiance and support for one political party or ideology is a clear example of this since the individual chooses a political view that fits in with his own ‘moral’ beliefs and values.

1.  ‘Us and Them’

2. Materialism and the Disenchantment with the World

3. Misguided Individualism

4. Institutionalized Control

5. Absolutism

]]> 0
Around the Campfire Ep.1 : How Do I Stop Being Affected by Toxic Colleagues? Fri, 21 Jul 2017 16:44:00 +0000 This will be the first of a series of posts wherein I receive questions from my readers and try to offer an answer, a few words of advise or some encouragement from my own life experience if and where possible 😉 The questions might be about a life issue, a snag in your personal growth or something you would like to have more clarity on. Everyone is welcome to share their questions, comments and stories through contacting me on the Soul Hiker Facebook Page, my personal FB profile, email or by using the comments section below. All questions will remain anonymous unless otherwise requested.

Feel free to join this circle of words around the campfire where we exchange views and perspectives on life issues between fellow Soul Hikers.

Today I will start to answer a question sent by one of this blogs readers. The question is this:

“I have been doing a lot of inner work over the last year. I try to meditate as regularly as I can, eat healthy, and read and discuss spirituality topics. I think I am doing good progress but my issue is work. The general vibe at work, especially around some of my colleagues, is very toxic. I feel suffocated’ and often feel out of myself and heavily influenced by their behaviour. What can I do in order not to be so affected by this?”

First of all this is a commonplace issue, especially among people who are in some way or another ‘on the path’ and changing their perspective on life and themselves. This could be either because they have awakened to new realisations, were inspired by a new vision of life or perhaps gone through a rough patch that shook them up a little. Either way, these are people who are in a transition between an ‘old’ and ‘new’ version of themselves.

You see, change and growth are not easy. Sensitivity on all matters is heightened, crises beat up your shore more often, emotions get high and relationships of all kinds can get weary, stressful or simply break down. This is a necessary part of a path choice that is quite rewarding in the end. If you are nodding your head to all this, then most definitely you are ‘on the path’ and you know what I am talking about.

Whatever we go through in life, we somehow send out signals around us that people might pick up even though unconsciously and the other way round – we unconsciously pick up or tune into signals that others around us are emitting all the time. Now keep in mind that we are all mirrors. Whatever we have inside is projected outside and reflected back at us when we interact with others and vice versa – whatever others go through is reflected back at them through our words, thoughts and actions.

Another way of seeing it is that we all carry an invisible bubble around us and this bubble contains all our mental and emotional stuff. When we interact with others, it’s like those bubbles intersect as if we enter each others’ bubble. When we do, a lot of information is exchanged – body language, feelings, words and all sorts of perceptible and sub-perceptible things. In fact we sometimes we feel overwhelmed within a group of people because the ‘information’ is too much and too loud! With some other people we feel energetically drained or suddenly we feel that we have hit on a low key. These are the classical energy vampires. At the opposite end, there are people who are uplifting and have an overall aura of positive, vibrant energy. Every time you talk to such people you feel a buzz or a ‘high’ and you are left inspired and energised.

Now coming back to the issue at work. This is where we have to go into each others’ bubbles whether we like it or not. We have to interact with colleagues on different levels at some point. Your question is how to not be affected by colleagues that you feel are intoxicating your own bubble. The first answer is awareness. Being aware and conscious of your own feelings and reactions every time you enter those bubbles is crucial. It changes everything. Why? Because being more aware and conscious means partially standing outside of those bubbles and observing what’s going on. While you are talking or responding to others’ verbal and non-verbal communication, you observe your own feelings and reactions. As you do this you start to ‘depersonalise’ or ‘dis-identify’ with the whole thing. You step out of the drama which you are usually sucked into unconsciously and affected by it. Keeping in mind the whole thing above about mirrors and bubbles is already a head start and a perspective changer. You realise that there is another way of looking at it and playing the game.

Secondly, you need to stop taking things personally. As I mentioned, people around you carry different bubbles than yours. They are all on different life paths, lessons, issues, perspectives and ways of seeing things. Not to talk about emotional biases and histories. What others see or think of you is quite irrelevant and what you think they think of you is even more so. It’s because it is not real or even close to it. It’s just a product of how those bubbles intersect and interact. If you take it personally, you give more energy and substance to others’ bubbles – you give them a solid reality which in turn will affect your own bubble. In short, you will be affected mentally and emotionally through your communication with others around you.

So being more vigilant and observant of how you feel and respond when you enter someone else’s bubble – say a colleague – and by not allowing yourself to take whatever ‘information’ is sent your way through others’ actions and words personally, you start becoming less and less affected by others’ toxicity or ‘junk’ emanating from their own bubble.

Yet the real important outcome of all this is not that you dodge the bullet so to speak. It’s not just that you avoid being affected negatively by your colleagues’ toxicity but by being less affected you are responding differently and hence you are reflecting back a different sort of ‘information’ when you enter that bubble. You are not unconsciously drawn into it and therefore not giving it ‘solidity’ anymore. What happens then is that the other person will actually start changing his or her own behaviour too by either freaking out – because the person starts seeing his or her own shortcomings and is not ready to face it (hence denying it and projecting it on to you through blaming – but that’s OK because you are now more conscious of what’s going on) – or actually attuning to your positive response and change accordingly.

In scientific talk there are two opposite things called positive and negative feedback which are a bit counterintuitive since we associate positive and negative with good or bad. In the case where we unconsciously react to others’ behaviour, we enter a positive feedback, that is, we keep on reflecting and reinforcing each others’ negative reactions and the whole thing keeps on growing and building up until things become too toxic to handle. On the other hand, by being more conscious of not slipping into the drama, negative feedback ensues wherein the other’s person negative reactions start decreasing every time they bounce back from you with little to no reaction until finally it comes to a silent halt.

So in summary what you need to take home from all this is that you can turn things around and instead of only thinking how to not be affected by others’ behaviour start thinking that you have the power, if you are conscious enough, to actually change the relationship around which is a truly empowering thought!

Hope it helps!

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The Human Gift of Imagination & the Great Cost of Losing It Sat, 15 Jul 2017 08:13:31 +0000 Imagination is one of those things that have been grossly misjudged throughout history and up to a certain point vilified through the growing cynicism of a modernised world. Society consensually projects the idea of imagination to childhood and it often equates it with immaturity or a lack of thinking seriously and rationally. Even artists and people with a creative flair in general have been directly or indirectly discredited at some point in their lives – either at school, at home or by their peers. It’s as if the liberal use of the imagination is silently shunned by society.

The Historical Demise of Imagination

sunset-656414_1920The root of all this comes from a global culture in developed countries that has been increasingly leaning towards a patriarchal, logical and rational based society. In spiritual literature, creativity is seen to be more the domain of the feminine and in neuroscience, creative imagination is found to be more dominant in the right hemisphere of the brain. If you look at the history of the western world, one can see a crescendo, especially during the last 200 years, of a trend towards a ‘left-brain’ dominated society. In the early 20th century, Ideologies such as Fascism and the scientific movement known as ‘logical positivism’ come to mind. These are notorious examples of ‘chauvinistic’ or ‘left-brain’ ideologies.

Imagination Driving us into the Future

“What really made us leap forward as humans since we invented fire is our imagination”

fire_wolf_by_zsparkyWhat I find interesting when I look at the two sides of our brain – logical rationality vs creative imagination – from a historical perspective, is that the world has not progressed because of logic and rational thinking but despite of it. What really made us leap forward as humans since we invented fire is our imagination . I am not discrediting rational thought. Rationality was and is helpful to refine, make clearer and structure ideas and thoughts. It is also needed to keep imagination in balance because if imagination runs too wild and out of control it can also be destructive as much as a society completely devoid of it.

Even Science which is considered to belong solely to the domain of logical and analytical thinking has progressed forward because of human imagination. If you look at the greatest Scientific theories and discoveries, you will see that they were spurred by the use of the imagination and intuition. Rationality, logic and mathematics is later used to verify (or falsify), structure and define those conjectures and ideas. In short, imagination is what makes the world go round.

The Power of Imagining your World into Being

“I think of imagination as not just the power of summoning up images and fantasies in the mind, but rather the power to make something out of them…”

Going back to why imagination has been misjudged, I believe that it has been given the wrong attributes. For instance we think of imagination as being at odds with reality or as being completely illusory and hence has no place in everyday life. I think of imagination as not just the power of summoning up images and fantasies in the mind, but rather the power to make something out of them and hence has a practical dimension too.

Yes imagination can be just playful and fun with no consequence whatsoever other than putting up some fancy mental images together. Yet imagination can also be used to create your world into being. It can make you see things differently and beyond the limitations of what your ‘reality’ is feeding you. It can make you leap outside of the social matrix and look at a situation from different angles. It can invoke powerful visions that motivate you to move forward when you are stuck and debilitated from taking action.

Who Killed our Imagination?

detective_by_nahim89No one knows if there was one culprit or assassin. The imagination has been a victim of our times. Some say that our loss of using our creative imagination, such as more ‘primitive’ cultures did was an unavoidable consequence due to the cyclic change of the ages and we are now heading back to an age where our creative and imaginative side will be embraced once again.

“our education system has a lot to do with the subversion of our creative sides”

On a more practical note, I believe like many that our education system has a lot to do with the subversion of our creative sides. We have built a schooling system that is geared up to encourage academic thinking but not how to think better in the first place, even less how to use our creative imagination in extraordinary ways.

What are we missing out On?

I think the most interesting discussion about imagination has to do with how it can be used and applied. From another point of view we can ask ourselves “what potential are we missing out on if we lose our imagination”?

There are various practical aspects to imagination apart from the most obvious such as in the Arts. Here are a few I would like to share:

Inspiring Positive Change:

When you are stuck or debilitated into taking action, it is because you cannot see past your current situation. Your perception and perspective is limited. Imagination can make you leap beyond that limitation by ‘seeing’ things in an alternative possibility. You can envision an alternate reality with an alternate you and the more vivid this imagination is, the more it can stir up a strong attraction towards that imagined reality. In short imagination is what will inspire us to change. Nobody ever got inspired to change by seeing things as they appear and without using the power of imagination.

Creating Your Destiny:

Following the point above, by envisioning your possible future you are creating a template for action. First and foremost imagination creates the energy and the excitement to create something new and secondly it offers a blueprint to follow that goal. Imagination is extremely powerful for creating your own destiny because without it we would be stuck into the same patterns of behaviour. Imagination fuels the will to create, to change and to go for it.

Solving Problems:

Any creative thinker will tell you that imagination is the most important element in problem solving. Once again it compliments logical and analytical thinking beautifully, but it is many times more important to imagine outcomes and alternative possibilities when problem solving rather than deducting it logically.

Healing your Wounds:

Imagination was central to the ancient healing arts. Visualisation, which of course involves the use of the imagination, is a very important tool in conditioning the subconscious mind to change emotional imprints and even bodily manifestations. This is because the different levels of our being – the mental, emotional, physical, energetic and spiritual – are all interconnected. Imagination is one of the keys to hack through any of these levels.

Motivating Yourself:

Of course whenever you create a goal in your mind and then bring it to life through the use of your imagination it gives you a motivational boost. This is not the same thing as day dreaming (although yes it is also part of the imagination) but rather projecting yourself in the future through the conscious use of the imagination. Whenever we imagine or visualise something, the mind acts upon it as if it were a real input from the external environment. It doesn’t make the distinction. Hence, when the imagination it applied in the right way, it creates a positive emotional response in the form of motivation.

Embracing a Fuller You:

Imagination is part of our being. It is not something extra that we can use once in a while. It is an integral part of us and the more we deny it, the more we are reinforcing our own fragmentation. It has to be accepted and embraced. The more we do embrace it and apply it, the more we are giving space to ourselves to grow and mature as complete, well rounded individuals.

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7 Good Reasons Why You Should Embrace Your Flaws Sun, 09 Jul 2017 12:55:45 +0000 This article was written by me & originally published on Wisdom Times. See more of my articles on Wisdom Times here

We observe our little imperfections every time we look at ourselves in a mirror. We sometimes reflect on our shortcomings or imperfections of character after we fail to respond to a situation in an emotionally-balanced way; or when we harshly criticise ourselves for not having achieved something that is defined as successful or good by social convention.

All of this we come to see as our own ‘imperfections’. We see it as imperfect because it falls short of what we think, believe or expect to be perfect (that construct or idea we have in our head that we built over the years or that was handed down to us by society).

There is nothing bad in trying to be your best or make the best out of your life with your abilities or talents. What hurts is when you are enslaved by a compulsion to meet some ‘artificial’ idea of what it means to be perfect, thus becoming a ‘perfectionist’ in the negative sense of the word.

Reasons to embrace your flaws

1. You stop being derailed from your true purpose

2. It lightens you up

4. You measure things with the right perspective

5. You stop meeting some of your ego’s whims

6. You are healthier

7. You learn to open up to the imperfections of others

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The Key 3 Steps to Develop Intuition Thu, 29 Jun 2017 12:08:11 +0000 Most people believe that having intuitions is a fairly uncommon thing. In fact we admire those people who we hold as being more intuitive than the rest, especially those who put their intuitive skills into everyday practice. The starting point of this article has to be that this perspective is wrong at best. We all have the faculty to be intuitive but some lack the basic disposition to be able to tap into it.

Think about it. You must have had at least one clear intuition that you heeded and followed through successfully. Some others you have perhaps ignored or dismissed but on hindsight you realised that they were missed opportunities. The fact is that those intuitions did not happen by chance or by some special intervention. You were just open and quiet enough to pick up the signals and hence you are able to do so anytime.

Having intuition does not require a special time or occasion but it requires that you build up the right skill set on the three basic pillars shown below. Once  you get the basics and lay a solid foundation, you might also want to keep on developing and sharpening your skills further. A very good comprehensive resource I highly recommend is Sonia Choquette’s ‘Positive Intuition’ course. You can find out more about it here.

1. Directing Attention inwards:

Intuitions as the word itself hints comes from inside – they are not signals or messages we pick from our surroundings but rather messages that arise from within. They are not thoughts or day dreaming and they are not strictly feelings although they may start that way.

Intuitions are subtle messages that emerge out of our deeper consciousness or subconscious. So this means that our attention should be oriented inwards. This is perhaps the biggest obstacle for most people since we are so distracted by signals and noise around us and also because we are so used to search for information outside of us rather than within.

So the first stage involves starting to put more attention to what’s happening inside – feelings, your body (your body holds and communicates a lot of information), flashes and subtle realisations. The more you do this, the more you are sending a sign to yourself that you are in listening mode and hence this results in more intuitions flowing in.

2. Avoiding Interference Patterns:

Another main block to out intuition besides attention is our own mind which is all the time creating interference by means of thought patterns, limiting beliefs, cynicism and worries among other things. The analogy is to someone trying to pick up what someone with a soft voice is saying at the other end of the room when there is loud music or noise going on.

This is in fact what happens most of the time. The intuition would be there talking softly but our mind would be playing the music, switching on the T.V and sometimes also using the vacuum cleaner at the same time!

What this means is that in order to start ‘hearing’ your intuitions, you need to quiet down the room or step outside of it. You need to stop your mental chatter – stop thinking, banging on a problem, worry about consequences, etc – and pause, keeping your attention in the present. If you practice to stay long enough there, you will soon start picking up the messages and the more you do that, the louder they become.

3. Empowering the Voice:

When you start learning to listen and picking up more intuitions, you need to then start giving them more authority because otherwise they would remain faint in the background. You don’t just want to quiet down the room but you also want that soft voiced person at the back of the room to step forward and sit on the same table with you. You need to empower it.

You do so by giving it more trust and freedom. It used to happen often to me that I would get intuitions but not give them full support or trust. In other words, I used to get carried away by some current set of circumstances or by other’s advice instead of believing firmly in those intuitions and make sure to follow them through.

So in other words, believing firmly in your intuitions and grounding them into your reality will empower them to grow further and stronger in the long run.

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Waking Up to Moments of Clarity Fri, 16 Jun 2017 18:23:31 +0000 Lately I was revisiting the idea of clarity which also happened to prop up in separate conversations over the period of a week. It felt like the ‘theme’ or the ‘zeitgeist’ of the week so I took some time to reflect on it. I looked at all those things which became clear in my life throughout the years, especially recent ones, and also pinpointed those which are still going through the process.

Contemplating on these aspects of my life allowed me to see the broader dynamics into play and made me understand a little bit closer which are those enabling factors that are conducive to the so-called moments of clarity.

But what is clarity really? I think it is simpler to explain what lack of clarity in life is since unfortunately it is so familiar with most of us. Lacking clarity is like being stuck somewhere with no motion forward. There isn’t one clear ‘a-ha’ feeling that comes forward and gets you rolling up your sleeve and working excitedly on a goal. Lack of clarity is also synonymous with confusion – when there are too many bits and pieces strewn around and we are at loss how to put them together and form the one big picture of our life. Lack of clarity can be general, as in with regards to our life’s purpose and mission, or can be specific to a particular situation or passage in life. For instance we could be unclear about doing a certain life transition or what to do in a particular relationship. These are all different facets of the same problem.

So leaving behind what lack of clarity is, I want to share with you what has been my recent ‘clarification’ (excuse the pun) on clarity.

Clarity does not come from thinking:

The biggest misunderstanding regarding clarity is that we assign the idea to the mind or thinking. We expect that we get clarity on an issue by getting some magical clear thought that resolves all the confusion and misunderstanding. This is actually not the case in reality. Although we use the expression ‘having a clear head’ or ‘clear thinking’, this actually has nothing to do with what I mean by clarity here.

In reality, clarity comes from the heart or rather when we are in sync with our heart’s calling. We go through the classical battle between mind and heart throughout most of our life. The heart pulls one way and the mind is obstinately tied in a loop or pretending not to be listening and doing its own thing. On one hand there is a general undercurrent of authentic motivations and desires coming deep from our heart and on the other there are all the stuff, fears, beliefs, ideas and rules that the mind is clinging on as a result of us being in a cultural context and social environment.  It is the battle between our authentic aspirations and those goals expected from us by others.

A real moment of clarity arises when we definitely cross a boundary and resolve that we must follow our heart to do a particular change even though it will be resented or frowned upon by others. It is when you listen to that call and answer it. You basically pick up the phone. So clarity starts from the heart by identifying and accepting that we need to do something without fearing disapproval or failure. Once that is brought in the light, the mind then can see it and translates it into words and ideas. This is why we think that clarity comes from thinking because when the mind translates what the heart is clear about, we say something like: “I think I know what I have to do about this….”. In reality the thinking is secondary.

So what’s the point to take home? Well, I think it boils down to a simple advice that has been repeated too many times in too many forms but ultimately still slips away :  Listen to your heart – Give more attention to its calling – Trust it more

Giving Space:

Another important aspect of clarity is space. Clarity is always born from an open space. When we are trying to squeeze and pour our emotions onto something or else thinking an overanalysing a given situation, the less likely it is that clarity arises. When we stand back from our inner conversations and give more space to the problem we are trying to address, it is like opening up a door through which we can hear and see our intuitions and deeper motivations. It is also a space that allows internal conflicts to be resolved and processed.

We create space by detaching our mind from the situation and give our mental operations a pause. We stop the expectations, the possible scenarios, the analysing, the comparisons and all the other stuff that our minds so easily gets us sucked into. It is also releasing our emotional attachment to something. When something troubles us, we tend to focus our emotions and thinking on it, believing that the more intensely we do it the more we will solve the issue. It can’t be farther from the truth. When we disengage from trying to grasp something, we are instantly giving space for our inner wisdom to come through in seemingly moments of clarity. When we pour our fears and concerns onto something we are giving those fears and concerns energy and power thus constricting our freedom and possibilities.

Think about it for a minute. How many times did you resolve something by worrying or over-analysing it? On the other hand how many times did you get clarity by abandoning and accepting the problem? Did you ever wonder how things manage to resolve themselves beautifully without our input?

A Sort of Homecoming:

The clear path is one that drives you home. It is a sort of homecoming. Through most of our life we are bombarded with so many thoughts, fears and ideas that are not authentically ours. We are distracted, alienated and taken off course from our purpose and real life aspirations. The more unconsciously we follow the signs posted by society rather than our own internal heart space, the farther we drive off course….the more distant we get from home.

So for me, a real moment of clarity is one which reminds you which way is home – back to your heart, to your real Self and inner wisdom and power. It is a sign post or a map telling you how to get there. Indeed, clarity is not about something outside of us, like a problem or situation (although it might be), but it is mostly internal – an opening to the path towards your heart.

Once again, it’s good to keep present in mind that what we seek when we yearn for clarity is actually already there in our internal heart space – that space which can be accessed once we resolve to let go of the mind’s objects, our anxieties, projections and fears. Let go of all that and the path towards the Self becomes apparent. It’s not an ‘if’ or a ‘but’ – it’s a certainty that works all the time because this is the way it works.

The more we shed of our daily concerns, the games of the ego and the merry-go-rounds in our mind, the easier it is to become clear about our path, our purpose and our way home.

This article was written by Gilbert Ross and published on The Mind Unleashed Jul 2015.

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The Man on a Mission to Bring Ancient Technology Back to the People Thu, 15 Jun 2017 17:07:12 +0000 For many of you, Amish Shah needs very little introduction. I can probably go as far as saying that he is a present-day idol and an  inspiration as to how one can create an extraordinary life out of humble or ordinary beginnings. A relentless serial-entrepeneur and a self-made millionaire from a young age, Amish is an unstoppable fountain of creative ideas, driven by his own passion and visions. His talks, such as the one he gave at the Awesomeness Fest are always motivation boosters. I mean seriously, when I hear Amish talk, I always get this compulsion to get off my ass and continue working on what drives me and makes me excited! The man has some real serious fire going on in his belly.

Amish is not just a perfect example of how drive and motivation can lead you to the gravy train. There is definitely much more to him and he has some secrets to share with all of us. Deeply interested in metaphysics, ancient wisdom and modern Technology since a young boy, Amish has researched, practiced and distilled his own synthesis of various esoteric traditions into a practical guide he calls ‘Project Yourself’. He is now on a mission to spread the ‘ancient technology’ of Ayurveda to a wider audience through projects under his mother company Deep Origins.

I got to talk a little bit with Amish to find out more about this inspirational character and his work.

1. Amish, give us a little brief background about yourself – Your passion and entrepreneurial projects that you have spun over the years.

AMISH: Technology has always been at the center of everything I do. I made my millions a few years ago as a serial digital entrepreneur in fields like mobile, affiliate marketing and internet marketing. Got myself and my businesses on the Inc. 500 list twice, worked hard and partied harder before falling sick and nearly having my body give up on me.

That’s when I realized I needed a change; a new purpose.

Now I’ve consolidated all my assets into my company called Deep Origins. Our mission and passion is to revive and spread the 5,000-year-old ‘ancient technology’ known as Ayurveda to help people heal and awaken their highest personal and professional potential. This mission is very close to me, I actually grew up with Ayurveda and I’ve the incredible effect it has not just in healing, but in elevating us into more creative, intuitive, connected and conscious beings. So I truly believe that if we can get at least 10 million people practicing these ancient techniques, we’ll see a healing and consciousness revolution sweep across the planet.

2. You blended together entrepreneurship with your passion for ancient mysteries, metaphysics and other cool stuff. Can you mention some of these project/s?

AMISH: I’ve got a number of brands that cater to different aspects of ancient wisdom.

First there’s Ancient Explorers, which is a historical and archaeological movement that unearths and preserves ancient wisdom from important ancient sites and civilizations like the Mayans, the Egyptians, the Native Americans, etc. We publish films and reports, and even organize trips to help educate people on the kind of ancient wisdom that could actually help us move forwards as a species. And of course it’s also about helping people live out their Indiana Jones fantasies, haha.

Secondly you’ve got Project:Yourself, which is a personal growth movement that harnesses both ancient wisdom and space-age peak performance science to elevate people into the best versions of themselves.

Project:Yourself trains people to harness a unique selection of tools, like meditation, brainwave entrainment, Ayurveda, visualization, astrology and a ton more through home training courses and live events. I’m also super excited about a new brand I’m building under Deep Origins, called Ancient Healthcare. The focus here is Ayurveda, and we’re working on both supplements and a massive documentary film that I believe is going to make a huge impact in the field of health and wellness.

3. The ‘Project Yourself’ Program talks about ‘reality hacking’ and ‘reality  bending’. What does  ‘reality hacking’  mean to you? Does everyone have the ability to bend reality?

AMISH: This idea of bending reality is about tapping into forces both inside you and around you… to amplify your personal power and create powerful positive outcomes in every area of your life. And by that I mean forces like ‘superhuman’ intuition and creativity. Heart intelligence. Vibrations. Ancient sounds and symbols with the power to alter human brainwaves. Planetary movements. And the collective consciousness that some people refer to as ‘The Universe’.

It’s about stepping up to the infinite power you were born with, but lost somewhere along the way due to social conditioning and the fact that 99% of people have no clue on how to access it.

So yes, EVERYONE has the ability to bend reality – but they need to be reminded of how to do it. And that’s what Project:Yourself is about.

4. Another central idea of the Project yourself program is the 12,000 year old symbol called the ’Sri Yantra’.  What is your idea of it through your own experience?

AMISH: I first stumbled on the Sri Yantra in an ancient book on Vedic wisdom that my mom brought back from India. The first time I saw it I was like WHOA what is this???
Then I started reading up about the Sri Yantra and learning that this symbol is actually revered in Vedic, Buddhist and Tantric traditions as the visual personification of the building blocks of the Universe itself. In case you didn’t know, Yantra in Sanskrit means “Power Diagram”. Sri Yantra, therefore, translates as “King of Power Diagrams”. The common English translation is “Instrument of Creation”. Almost every mathematical principle that governs the laws of reality is embedded in those lines. You’ve got sacred geometry. You’ve got Pi. You’ve got the Fibonacci sequence.
And you’ve got countless experiments and studies by scientists and spiritual teachers alike that PROVE this symbol’s amazing power – like there was an EEG study at Moscow University that showed people’s brainwaves would dramatically shift just by looking at it. Farmers in India have found it increases crop yield. A scientist even claimed that the Egyptian Pyramids were engineered with the same angular measurements as the Sri Yantra.
Personally? I have a Sri Yantra in my house, and it’s gold-plated because gold is a powerful conductor of energy. And I use the Sri Yantra both as an energetic conductor, and as a focal point for my meditations. I even have a tattoo of it on my back, and I’m not even a tattoo kind of guy, haha.
It’s also pretty crazy to see what my students get out of using this symbol in their lives. Some use it to meditate more deeply. Some use it to accelerate physical and emotional healing. I even had one student from Ohio who swears putting the Sri Yantra in his car saved him from a car crash.

5. One thing that struck me  in one of your talks is the idea that what we see as other people’s success is not luck or coincidence but synchronicity they are manifesting through bending reality their way.  Can you tell us a bit how ‘Project Yourself’ can help people become masters of their life instead of bystanders?

AMISH: Life is a roller coaster of ups and downs for most people, because that’s the default state of the Universe. Things may seem chaotic or peaceful to us at different times, but if you stepped away from your individual experience, you would see that the Universe itself is always in perfect balance.

So unless you’re consciously creating the reality you want, you’re really subject to the whims of those ups and downs. You’ll have good times, and you’ll have bad times, but you won’t have much control over how much good or how much bad you’ll experience. That’s my definition of life “happening” to you.

Project:Yourself is about tapping into the creation powers that allow you to TELL the Universe exactly what you want. And you do that through daily conscious practices that awaken the highest potential of your mind, body and spirit. Anyone who wants to be the best they can be needs to do this. Anyone who wants to discover and share their greatest gifts needs to do this. And anyone who wants to no longer feel stuck, or disempowered, or aimless, or at the mercy of their career, money, health or relationship problems, needs to do this.

6. You said you have been asked these two questions a lot: “How did you become so successful and what is your secret sauce?”  Do you attribute some or much of your secret of success to how you changed your perspective regarding reality bending?

AMISH: I think how you define that word ‘success’ is important. A few years back I was pretty darn successful by conventional standards. I lived in an ocean view villa. I had millions in the bank. I had a Ferrari and a Maserati in the garage. But I was miserable, because I felt lost and stuck and unfulfilled with my life.

I remember one time in particular when I was taking a shower in my huge bathroom overlooking the ocean, and I really just felt like killing myself. That’s when I decided to redefine what success meant to me. I decided that success needed to have a deeper meaning to me, it had to be SPIRITUAL and not just material.

And to be successful spiritually, well you need to do some inner work on yourself. And you also need to start seeing beyond just yourself, and start seeing life as an opportunity to EXPLORE and GROW and be of SERVICE to others. It was that realization that put me on this path. And I intend to stay on it for the rest of my life.

7. What’s Amish’s current goal/project for the next five years?

AMISH: My singular focus right now is on spreading ancient wisdom and making it relevant again to modern lives. And like I said earlier, Ayurveda is my biggest focus when I talk about ancient wisdom, because of how holistic and powerful and applicable it is to the challenges modern people are facing.

People are stressed, they’re sick, they’re feeling stuck, they’re unhappy with their careers and finances, and the truth is so many of these problems come from WITHIN – and that’s not something conventional medicine or treatments can fully help with.

Personally, it’s ancient wisdom that elevated me into the happiest, healthiest, most abundant version of myself that I’ve ever been. And it’s not something you can get just by working hard or thinking positive or even trying to eat and exercise right.

The challenge with this ancient wisdom is that it needs to be taught the right way, and it needs the right approach so people don’t get intimidated or brush it off as old pseudoscience or hocus pocus.

The truth is that there’s so much credible science to all of it, and every result we talk about through Deep Origins is provable and replicable – so getting that message out there is my mission, and like I said, we’re going to stay on this path, and we’re going to change 10 million lives through this wisdom, and then 10 million more, until we’ve sparked a turning point for the whole planet 🙂

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A Painful or Dignified Demise of the Ego? Sun, 11 Jun 2017 08:58:34 +0000 This is an article from my friend Frank M. Wanderer Phd. published in his blog Power of Consciousness
The social and ecological crises that threaten mankind and our Earth force us to make a choice. We must reach beyond our Ego-dominated mind programs, because if we fail to do that, we will eventually destroy ourselves and a large part of the world.
The Ego must therefore fall, as it is against the evolutionary development of the Consciousness. The downfall of the Ego may take place in two ways: a beautiful, dignified way or a painful one, full of suffering. But both ways will take us to the same goal: the awakening Consciousness.

The Painful Way

We are very well acquainted with the journey full of pain. A basic aspiration of every Ego is growth, to become larger, stronger and more solid in the world of forms and shapes. It wants to posses more, to get higher and higher in the hierarchic structure of the world, and it wants to conquer a larger and larger territory. Under the spell of the forms and shapes, the Ego devotes all its energy to make the forms constant, disregarding the only constant law of the forms and shapes: every form is transient, and everything is subject to birth and death.
The Ego intends to elevate the forms (including its own form) to eternity, which is impossible. This intention of the Ego will be the source of all sufferings, because its world of forms and shapes shall collapse like a sandcastle after a while, until death snatches away the last of the forms: its body from it. It came empty-handed from Nothing, and that is how it is going to return there. The only treasure it could take along with it is its wakefulness, but the Ego considers that worthless in the world of forms and shapes, as it was not a means of increasing the tyrannical power the Ego.

The Dignified Way

The better, more attractive way leading begins around the middle of the human life, when the individual, under the effects of their experience, tends to recognize the operating mechanisms of the Ego and realizes how tyrannical the Ego is. The person then turns away from forms and shapes towards transcendental world, free of forms. That is what one of the psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung, called the spiritual birth of man.
That spiritual birth starts with the recognition that most people only make in articulo mortis: that turning away from the Miracle and identification with the forms and shapes is the reason for all our sufferings. A person making that recognition gradually gives up their identification with the forms and shapes, and steps back from the whirling of the world into a more quiet area. In this way they will be more alert to themselves and their environment. The clear sky of Consciousness will be contaminated by fewer and fewer clouds, giving way to the return to the Miracle of Consciousness.
In the space of Consciousness, in the state of pure consciousness the person recognizes and clearly experiences that Ego is a fraud. The Ego calls itself real and the only existing ”Self,” though it is nothing more than a conceptual product, the continually changing content of the space of Consciousness that diverts our attention from experiencing the only reality: the Miracle.
The spiritual ”newborn” in the pure state of consciousness, in meditation, in the wakeful state of focusing on itself, seeks and searches that complaining and arrogant, constantly chatting Ego in its mind, but finds it nowhere. The individual penetrates all the way to the source of that voice, but when they attempt to grab it, it slips away and vanishes. The internal monologue, the voice of Ego stops and disappears, it is lost into No-thingness, and the person experiences that there is not other ”Self” but the Consciousness. The individual will then realize that the only natural remedy against the paranoid overgrowing of the Ego is wakefulness and attention.
This is the beginning of a life of different quality: experiencing the Miracle, which is salvation for the entire mankind. First as pre-historic people we recognized our bodily needs, in the Middle Ages we experienced extreme emotions, in the modern age we worship the power of the mind, and now we are on the threshold of a new period in evolution. We recognize that beyond the realm of sensations, emotions and thoughts there is a wakeful, attentive, loving, conscious, factual ”something”–and that ”Something,” that is me. That is how the human race, waking to Consciousness from the dream of the Ego, is born again.

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Excitment is the Key to Fulfillment Wed, 07 Jun 2017 08:06:43 +0000 I think I have written somewhere in one of my past articles that it is not about happiness at all. No. It is all about excitement. What I mean is that the ultimate goal in life is not happiness itself. Happiness is only an outcome. What we should be practically looking for is doing those things that make us most excited about life.

Excitement is not just an emotional response or a build up in body chemistry. It is not that short lived anticipation to something – like that brief but intense suspense before something is about to happen or be announced. The excitement I am talking about is about doing those things that ignite that flair in you and fire up your imagination. It is doing that something that doesn’t dull you or eventually put you in a stagnant pool of buts, maybes and tomorrow we’ll see.

Here are some indicators that you are doing or planning things that excite you:

* You feel energised while thinking about or doing that thing
* You do not get tired or bored easily even when pitfalls or challenges are met
* It gives you a sense of meaning to what you are doing and where you are in life
* It gives you a lot or reward and satisfaction even if that reward has nothing to do with money or merit
* You want to talk about it in those moments your are not actually doing it

Deviations & Distractions

Of course there will be stumbling blocks and setbacks even when doing things that excite you the most, yet they will eventually draw us back to doing them unless we do not keep on resisting the call forever. Think of a writer’s block for instance. It might keep the writer away from what excites him the most, or give him a lot of frustration, but will eventually return to his writing pad even after going through all sorts of deviations in the meantime – some of them possibly being abusive or self-destructive in extreme cases.

I think now that I mentioned distractions and deviations, one has to be aware of these as being potentially the biggest obstacle to a life of excitement and fulfilment. They come in all forms and sizes and can be rather sneaky. It is incredible how some things can distract us – at least for some time – even from things that give us excitement. Truth is, every man made thing around you and most social situations are there to deviate you or distract you from breaking free and doing what is authentically exciting for you. Sounds like an over generalisation but it is fundamentally true.

So what I am saying is that baking might be something that gives you a lot of excitement and following that passion to eventually open up your bakery or host a T.V show about food and baking would be something that is aligned with your purpose and highest fulfilment. That’s cool. But there will be distractions and deviations. This is part of the challenge. For example, you might feel the pressure of having to take the bold and risky step of leaving your full time job and hence end up deviating from your goals because of this fearful mindset that your income is somehow concrete while your dream is, well, just a dream. It is very easy to fall for these mind traps.

You might also be sidetracked by a barrage of distractions along the way like pretty things that want your attention or following short-lived and inauthentic goals (because others are doing it or it looks cool). It is easy to lose sight of your goals whether for a very brief moment or for an extended period of time. This is all fine and part of what it is to be human, especially in this day and age of fanciful distractions. What is important is to keep on looking for what excites you the most. That has to be a constant question, a continuous search of your bearings.

Keep On Asking

In moments of doubt or when you feel lost, keep on asking “what excites me the most?”, “is this job or project exciting me?”, “Does this thought about doing this excite me?”. And if the question is a strong yes, then it is clear what to follow. Yes you will get doubts and fears, especially those handed down by others, such as ‘I cannot possibly achieve this, it’s too wild and out-of-the-ordinary’ or ‘ I have to be realistic about my finances and all my commitments…I cannot possibly make such a blind leap of faith.’ What you have to find confidence and conviction in is that following those things that excite you the most can never be a wrong thing or one that will lead you astray. Screw momentary setbacks and neigh sayers. Those will come and go. But being guided by your heart is a sure way of never going astray even though it might look like it for a while. By following your heart’s calling and doing what excites you the most, you will always get to your destination somehow and that’s a guarantee.

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Cokorda Putra Wibisana Marga

Data Mahasiswa
Nama : Cokorda Putra Wibisana Marga
NIM : 1215251078
Jenjang : S1
Program Studi : Manajemen
Perguruan Tinggi : Universitas Udayana

Database infrastructures are an integral part of an enterprise and necessary for ensuring continuous flow of information through the enterprise. Database transactions are vital for reducing the probability of failure within an enterprise database and ensure proper functioning. This report discusses some of the facets linked with database transactions.

The database of a company is That the storehouse of all the vital information And data relevant to the operation of the firm and is intended to Be absolutely confidential and protected from any attack by a cyber criminal. The Options of This database being Negligent and Hacked by Attackers are high because it's accessible to the user from anyplace. Therefore it becomes the Leading duty of the administrator to protect the Database by continuously monitoring the functions and try to find any Loophole that will benefit from the attacker.

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Happy Learners - Managing Sensory Needs - Smell

Happy Learners Banner

Smell (Olfaoception)

Strategies to support children with sensory needs involving the sense of smell

Children who are hyposensitive to smell have a much higher threshold before they sense smells. This can lead to some sensory seeking behaviour where they sniff objects and people. Younger children may seek out smells that are unpleasant to most people. Strategies that can support them include:

Using aromatherapy scents and oils

Burning scented candles

Provide scented (smelly, stinky) stickers as rewards

Manage any personal overuse of deoderants and perfumes etc

Use informative social stories to discourage inappropriate smell seeking behaviour

Children who are hypersensitive to smell have a much lower threshold before they sense smells. This can lead to difficulties concentrating when sensing smells they experience as unpleasant. This can be everyday ordinary smells. This can lead to avoidance behaviour as the child tries to keep away from unpleasant smells such as using public toilets. Strategies that can support them include:

Parents and staff may need to use neutral deoderants and avoid strong perfumes etc

Encourage child to carry a scented handkerchief which they can then use to mask unpleasant smells

They may need to have school lunch away from dining hall and kitchen

Use extractors fans when cooking and pre-prepare meals when able

Encourage the child to do a quiet relaxing activity before exposure to smells and before mealtimes

Air fresheners or scented candles may be used to mask other smells

Experiment with different washing detergent and fabric softeners

Consider needs of child when using apparatus that may create smells

Manage exposure to new smells by building up intensity and/or duration slowly

Seat the child in the class away from peers with strong smells such as tobacco smells and body odour. You may also need to manage children from other ethnic and cultural backgrounds whose smell may reflect differences in diet.

You may also be interested in the following pages:

Managing Sensory Needs - Hearing

Managing Sensory Needs - Sight

Managing Sensory Needs - Taste

Cheng, M., & Boggett-Carsjens, J. (2005). Consider Sensory Processing Disorders in the Explosive Child: Case Report and Review. The Canadian Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Review, 14(2), 44–48.

Laurie, C. (2013) Sensory Strategies London: The National Autistic Society


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10. Grottes de Bétharram

The caves comprise four fossilised levels and an active level. There are a variety of stunning limestone rock formations and remarkable effects caused by erosion including an exceptional coffered ceiling on the first level. The guided tour begins on the upper level which contains galleries and caves with wonderful formations. The tour then descends 80 metres down a chasm to reach the underground river level. A boat takes you 150 metres along two faults 80 metres deep where the successive levels of the river bed can be seen. You take the little train for the 700 metre underground journey back to the surface.


floor function
(another Prime Pages' Glossary entries)
The Prime Glossary
Glossary: Prime Pages: Top 5000: The floor function of x, historically called the greatest integer function, is the greatest integer less than or equal to x.  This function is sometimes written [x], but is best written (a notation that was suggested by Iverson in 1962) to differentiate it from the ceiling function.

Examples: [3.14159]=3, [-3.14159]=-4, and [log(n)/log(10)]+1 is the number of digits in the decimal expansion of the positive integer n.

See Also: CeilingFunction

K. E. Iverson, A programming language, John Wiley \& Sons, 1962.  MR 26:913


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These materials are being adopted to make technology lightweight, durable, flexible, and easier to manufacture by implementing advances like 3D printing.

This 25-page eBook is your guide to Industrial Robots and their impact on the Modern Workforce. Industrial Robots focuses on information that all ME’s need to know.


Scholar Profile

Wesley B. Grueber

Associate Professor
Department of Physiology & Cellular Biophysics
Columbia University
630 W. 168th Street
Physicians & Surgeons 11-451
New York, NY 10032
Voice: 212-305-1701
Personal Homepage
2007 Searle Scholar

Research Interests

The morphologies of dendrites and axons are the fundamental building blocks of neuronal circuits, yet how neurons attain their enormous variety of shapes remains a perplexing and poorly understood problem.  Our lab is interested in how neurons acquire their type-specific morphology and how this morphology influences nervous system function.  We approach this problem by studying the development of individual neurons and individual dendritic and axonal processes.  We aim to identify conserved morphological principles in the nervous system (such as "tiling" see below), and then use molecular and genetic approaches to understand the mechanisms by which specific neuronal morphologies are sculpted during development.

We use as a model system a population of sensory neurons that spread dendrites in two dimensions across the body wall of Drosophila melanogaster.  These neurons show diverse, yet stereotyped, morphologies and are therefore well-suited for us to study how a neuron achieves a cell-specific or class-specific branching pattern.  Using this system, we can also genetically manipulate and image neuronal morphogenesis by removing or expressing genes in specific neurons.  For example, we have shown that repulsive mechanisms operating between dendritic branches play a major role in guiding the characteristic "spreading" of individual dendritic arbors, as well as limit the extent of dendritic growth.  When dendrites have reached an appropriate size, such repulsion ensures that dendrites of the same morphological or functional type provide complete but non-redundant coverage of the body wall.  The best analogy is to simply observe how tiles cover a floor.  The tiles, if laid correctly, show neither gaps nor overlaps, and thus provide efficient and full coverage.  Similarly, dendrites must often tile their territory completely without gaps or overlap so as to fairly sample all information impinging on them.  By identifying genes that, when disrupted, lead to defective dendrite patterning, we are beginning to unravel the molecular basis of conserved signals that give neurons their unique shapes crucial for proper nervous system functioning.


The author of this article is terribly confused and the article itself is beyond disappointing. It is the 21st century, I can’t even fathom why there are still people out there that have issues with transgenderism and the queer movement in general. Somebody feeling as if they are trapped inside the wrong body has EVERY RIGHT to change in order to be comfortable in his or her own skin. Deciding to become a man or woman in order to feel HAPPY requires a large amount of courage, and for somebody to shut that person down is completely insensitive. The person who decided to write such a politically incorrect article is obviously confused about the feminist movement, and all LGBTQ social movements in general. Feminism is an incredibly vast concept that so many people don’t understand, it is difficult to start an argument and have such a strong opinion on something that you really don’t know anything about. I am not saying that I myself am not guilty of this, but I’ve learned that if I really don’t get something, I should research it. This woman, although formerly a man physically, chose to do something for herself in order to lead a happy and healthy life. We in NO WAY have the right to judge her. “Calling Bruce Jenner a Woman” is not only embracing what the LGBTQ movement is about, but it is also inspiring so many men and women out there that are confused about their sexuality. I wish articles like this didn’t exist, but then again it goes to show that we as a society have so much to learn.