Why do we see aggressive behavior in all animal species, including in humans? What is its usefulness?

From an ethological point of view, aggression is a behavior which allows for a hierarchical status to be established within a group, facilitates the access to resources, allows one to defend against the attackers, ensures the territorial defensive or the conquest of other territories, helps one to protect the individuals from the native group, favors us in the contest with other males for the conquest of females, helps us to protect our sexual partner and to dispirit our rivals from other assaults in the future and so on. Practically speaking, the role of aggression is crucial for the existence, protection and evolutionary adaptation of the individual and the group [Kaufmann, 1965; Buss, Shackelford, 1997, apud Goetz, 2010, p. 17; Buss, Duntley, 2002]. There have been numerous and substantial potential advantages of aggression which have ensured the survival and the reproductive success of individuals so much, that, respectively, there have been enough reasons for the consolidation of these behavioral mechanisms on different stages of evolution, on a genetic level. We try to assign rational motivations to these acts; we label them as being immoral. However, they are, primarily, evolutionary adaptations, even if they seem to be ill-suited nowadays, and some manifestations of the instinct of aggression, such as homicides, military interventions, rapes, massacres, genocides and identity conflicts, are downright horrible [Duntley, Buss, 2011]. Let us examine a practical and recent example from the living world and see how the aggressive behavior can be advantageous for the ascension of a species. It’s about Dikerogamarus villosus, a species of shrimps which is also called “the killer shrimps” – a particular rapacious species, that succeeded in spreading panic among the European hydrobiological experts. These shrimps usually populate the rivers of East Europe, but in recent years, they have emigrated into the water of the Western Europe, where they proved to be a “total killer” of the microfauna from the local waterbodies. This little crustacean of only 3 cm in length and with powerful mandibles kills and cripples, unselectively, everything it meets along the way and can knock down other species of shrimps, the offspring of fish and amphibians, small fish, aquatic insects, worms and other beings that are unable to run or protect themselves. The thing that surprised the researchers was that the “killer shrimp” kills more than he needs in order to feed himself; he kills in order to exterminate all the other potential competitors. We could say that he kills in a “genocidal” manner. Due to his ferocity and high prolificacy, the “killer shrimp” colonized new and new aquatic spaces in Western Europe almost unrestrictedly (with a speed of about 124 km per year); he destroyed the populations of other species of shrimps (species that were also invasive), he imposes his status of an absolutely dominant species in the limits of the European aquatic microfauna and he smashes the ecological links that has stabilized themselves over the decades [1] [Macneil et al., 2013]. This is how, due to an extraordinary aggressiveness, a species manages to eliminate its competitors, to invasively expand its living area and to multiply, in order to raise its evolutionary opportunities for a long period of time. Of course, aside from competition through aggressiveness, there are other strategies in the living world which are used by some species (and nations) to ensure their survival and to gain evolutionary advantages, strategies like cooperation, reciprocal altruism, coalition formation etc., but no other strategy seems to be so omnipresent and efficient as the one that implies fighting for survival through… fighting. The aggression has foreshadowed the history of the human society itself. First, during the prolonged period of our species evolution, then in the process of geographical expansion and social affirmation, the aggressive behavior represented a compulsory factor for the ensuring of the existence and perpetuation of an individual, a group or a nation. This behavior had an adaptive role, i. e. it facilitated the survival and the reproduction of the individuals and the groups which demonstrated a higher capacity of combativeness and which used the aggression as a tool for protection and conquest. There are studies showing that overconfident states predominate in the population at the expense of unbiased or underconfident states. Overconfident states win because: (1) they are more likely to accumulate resources from frequent attempts at conquest; (2) they are more likely to gang up on weak states, forcing victims to split their defences; and (3) when the decision threshold for attacking requires an overwhelming asymmetry of power, unbiased and underconfident states shirk many conflicts they are actually likely to win. These “adaptive advantages” of overconfidence may, via selection effects, learning, or evolved psychology, have spread and become entrenched among modern states, organizations and decision-makers. This would help to explain the frequent association of overconfidence and war, even if it no longer brings benefits today [Johnson et al., 2011]. Political scientists admit the fact that the shy and peaceful nations stood to lose during territorial competition, just as the fractions which exhibit weakness and insufficient incisiveness stand to lose during competitions for power. On a political or geopolitical level, those who use the tool of violence and pressure have a higher chance of reaching their goals, and a force which has political power can be combated, usually, only by another force which is fiercer. On a historical scale, the global dominance of the Occident itself must be understood as a function of the capacity of the Westerners to impose themselves through violence [2]. On the other side, according to the Canadian anthropologist Peter Frost, the fall and the conquest of the Roman Empire happened because of the pacification of the most Rome’s population, which had lived in luxury and laziness for a couple of centuries, so that it would not be able, eventually, to resist the blows of extremely aggressive barbarian hoards. The bravest Romans were being recruited in the professional army and they often died without leaving offspring in Roma; instead, many weak, lazy and peaceful individuals stayed in towns, individuals who had promoted the culture of subordination and pacifism. The genes of these people had a larger distribution, as well as their habits. Thus, in a couple of centuries, somehow paradoxically for a Rome that had conquered the world through boldness and sword, the number of the Romans who were used to a life which was dependent on luxury and non-violence has essentially exceeded the number of the Romans that had a combative spirit. There took place something that Frost terms as “genetic pacification” of a population – a phenomenon that proved to be fatal for the empire in the conditions of foreign invasions [Frost, 2010]. With all the vulnerabilities that Frost’s theory contains, the emphasis that the author lays on the defensive state of a nation is interesting. Non-violence, as a spirit and tradition, besides being very useful for the development of a society in times of stability, proved to be a handicap during a crisis, in a period when violence equals success. Thanks to the communities, the nations and the states that showed a combative character and got engaged in endless fights, violence and aggressiveness remained, as behavioral states, up to now; the aggression stepped from prehistory into history. The American sociologist Charles Tilly has argued, in his writings, that “war made the state, and the state made war” and that the aggression is the only way in which a nation can survive and perpetuate itself throughout history. These states and nations, which were capable of developing and sustaining great armies, have dominated on a geopolitical level, while the weakly militarized nations, as well as the ones with a low demography, were conquered and destroyed or absorbed by the others [Tilly, 1985]. In this context, I shall also mention that, according to some researchers from the field of national history, like Eric Hobsbawm, the capacity to conquer is one of the three basic criteria that allow a nation to become and to consider itself a nation [Hobsbawm, 1997, p. 41]. In the works of the Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga, we could find the following sententious statement: „At the core of all actions and manners of the old state is the remembrance of the conquest.“ In political sciences, the so-called Just War Theory, the theory which states that violence is a „necessary evil“ and that it represents an immuable reality of history, is quite influently. At their extremes, the idylic pacifism and the roaring militarism would be much more ephemere conditions in the millenial history of humanity [3]. This variety of aggression‘s expressions in history – from pacifism to militarism -, is nothing more than a gradation of the manifestation of a behavioral phenomenon that is as lively as possible and that does never really disappear, but which can only be partially and temporary shaped and moderated, under the influence of the social context. However, there is something important which has to be observed and that is the fact that, sooner or later, the aggression breaks out.   © Dorian Furtună, ethologist Sources: Photo: Romans / Flickr / https://www.flickr.com/photos/duncanh1/4123999205Dikerogammarus villosus // http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dikerogammarus_villosus 1. Dikerogammarus villosus // http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dikerogammarus_villosus 2. Why Violence Works // By Benjamin Ginsberg. The Chronicle of Higher Education. August 12, 2013 / http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Violence-Works/140951/ 3. Just war theory // http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_war_theory • Buss D.M., Duntley J.D. Murder by Design: The Evolution of Homicide // Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2002 / http://www.philosophy.dept.shef.ac.uk/AHRB-Project/Papers/Non-pdf-papers/Buss.html • Buss D.M., Shackelford T.K. Human aggression in evolutionary psychological perspective // Clinical Psychology Review. Vol. 17. 1997. P. 605-619. • Duntley J.D., Buss D.M. Homicide adaptations // Aggression and Violent Behavior. Vol. 16. 2011. P. 399-410. • Frost P. The Roman State and Genetic Pacification // Evolutionary Psychology. Vol. 8(3). 2010. P. 376-389. • Goetz A.T. The evolutionary psychology of violence // Psicothema. Vol. 22(1). 2010 Feb. P. 15-21. • Hobsbawm E. Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality. Cambridge University Press. 1991. • Johnson D.D.P., Weidmann N.B., Cederman L.-E. Fortune Favours the Bold: An Agent-Based Model Reveals Adaptive Advantages of Overconfidence in War // PLoS ONE. Vol. 6(6). e20851. 2011. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020851 • Kaufmann H. Definitions and methodology in the study of aggression // Psychol. Bull. 1965. Nr.64. P.351-364. • Macneil C., Boets P., Lock K., Goethals P.L.M. Potential effects of the invasive ‘killer shrimp’ (Dikerogammarus villosus) on macroinvertebrate assemblages and biomonitoring indices // Freshwater Biology. Vol. 58, Issue 1. January 2013. P. 171-182. • Tilly Ch. War Making and State Making as Organized Crime. in “Bringing the State Back In”, edited by Peter Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985). P. 169-191.
See more: http://socialethology.com/role-aggression-lives-individuals-species-nations
Copyright © Dorian Furtuna

Reality is not problematic

Negative feelings are in you, not in reality. So stop trying to change reality. That’s crazy! Stop trying to change the other person. We spend all our time and energy trying to change external circumstances, trying to change our spouses, our bosses, our friends, our enemies, and everybody else. We don’t have to change anything. Negative feelings are in you. No person on earth has the power to make you unhappy. There is no event on earth that has the power to disturb you or hurt you. No event, condition, situation, or person. Nobody told you this; they told you the opposite. That’s why you’re in the mess that you’re in right now. That is why you’re asleep. They never told you this. But it’s self-evident.

Let’s suppose that rain washes out a picnic. Who is feeling negative? The rain? Or YOU? What’s causing the negative feeling? The rain or your reaction? When you bump your knee against a table, the table’s fine. It’s busy being what it was made to Be — a table. The pain is in your knee, not in the table. The mystics keep trying to tell us that reality is all right. Reality is not problematic. Problems exist only in the human mind. We might add: in the stupid, sleeping human mind. Reality is not problematic. Take away human beings from this planet and life would go on, nature would go on in all its loveliness and violence. Where would the problem be? No problem. You created the problem. You are the problem. You identified with “me” and that is the problem. The feeling is in you, not in reality.

Anthony De Mello

Five Stages of Growth of the Consciousness on the Spiritual Path

A person significantly developed ethically and intellectually is capable of mastering the following five main stages of the growth on the spiritual Path:
1. This is a preparatory stage: one has to master the true knowledge about God, about the meaning of our lives, about the methodology of the spiritual growth — and then to change correspondingly one’s own way of life.
2. Then such a person becomes established in the localization of himself in the chakra anahata and perceives the outer world from it, reacts from this chakra to the events that take place around.
3. Then he/she becomes a spiritual heart much larger than the material body. He/she can assume giant forms similar to the appearance of the human body. Now he/she possesses the ability to move in the universal space as a consciousness free from the fetters of matter: to move, in particular, with the help of the arms of the consciousness which grow from the spiritual heart and are coessential to it.
4. Having refined himself to the state of the Holy Spirit and having cognize the Creator in His Abode, He/She lives now among other Holy Spirits feeling Them, embracing Them, merging with Them — and together with Them helps other incarnated beings in their spiritual advancement.
5. Having submerged into the Ocean of the Primordial Consciousness (the Creator) and having finally merged with Him, He/She lives in two main states of the Creator: in Calm or in an active state which is called the Divine Fire. He/She is merged with the wholeness of the Absolute but also comes to incarnated beings as a Representative of the Creator — a Holy Spirit.
© Antonov V.V., 2010.

The Science of Reincarnation

AMAZING! (true masterpiece in a matter of minutes)

Teens' approach to social media risk is different from adults'

In a study, the researchers report that the way teens learn how to manage privacy risk online is much different than how adults approach privacy management. While most adults think first and then ask questions, teens tend to take the risk and then seek help.

Teens are often more exposed to online risks because they are using social media as a platform for self-expression and as a way to gain acceptance from their peers. This desire for expression and acceptance can lead teens to disclose too much information. They may disclose vital contact information, or exchange photographs with strangers, for example.
When teens begin to struggle with privacy concerns, they often try to find possible protective actions to mitigate risk, according to the researchers. Those remedies include seeking advice from adults, removing online information, or going offline completely.
Haiyan Jia (author) said swimming lessons may be the best model for parents who want to encourage their teens to use the Internet and social media safely.
"It's a lot like learning to swim," Jia said. "You make sure they enter the water slowly and make sure they know how to swim before you let them swim on their own and in the deeper parts."
Researchers present their findings at the Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing conference.

Forgetting mechanism in the human brain!

The research, published in Nature Neuroscience, is the first to isolate the adaptive forgetting mechanism in the human brain. The brain imaging study shows that the mechanism itself is implemented by the suppression of the unique cortical patterns that underlie competing memories. Via this mechanism, remembering dynamically alters which aspects of our past remain accessible.

Over the course of four selective retrievals the participants in the study were cued to retrieve a target memory, which became more vivid with each trial. Competing memories were less well reactivated as each trial was carried out, and indeed were pushed below baseline expectations for memory, supporting the idea that an active suppression of memory was taking place.

Dr. Maria Wimber (author) said, "It has significance for anything that relies on memory, but a really good example is that of eyewitness testimonies. When a witness is asked to recall specific information about an event, and they are quizzed time and time again, it could well be to the detriment of associated memories -- giving the impression that their memory is sketchy. In fact, the repeated recall is causing them to forget these details."

ஏகபாத மூர்த்தி

திருவொற்றியூர் கோவிலில் பிரம்மா, விஷ்ணு, ருத்ரன் எனும் மூவரும் நானே என உணர்த்தும் ஒரே காலில் நிற்கும் ஏகபாத மூர்த்தியின் திருவுருவம் அற்புதம் அற்புதம்.

Very good wood chipping machine

Transforming human leukaemia cells into functional immune cells to fight the remaining cancer cells

By reprogramming aggressive cancerous cells so they mature into harmless immune cells known as macrophages, scientists in the US say they might have found a way to not only neutralise the potentially fatal disease, but also use it against itself.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is an acute form of leukaemia that affects the body's lymphocyte-forming white blood cells called lymphoblasts. It’s an extremely aggressive and fast-moving type of cancer, causing an overproduction of defective lymphoblasts that, instead of producing an immune response, never mature. 

These stunted lymphoblasts actively halt the production of vital cells, including red and white blood cells and platelets, moving from the bone marrow to other organs, eventually wreaking havoc on a person’s entire body. The disease is most commonly found in children between the ages of two and five, and the elderly, and while the prognosis has certainly improved for patients over the past five decades, it can be fatal. In developing countries, there’s a five-year survival rate in more than 85 percent of diagnosed patients, which means about eight in 10 patients manage to survive at least five years past diagnosis.

As with any type of cancer, treatment is not particularly pleasant, and is especially hard on the children it afflicts. Combinations of chemotherapy, steroids, and radiation therapy are common, and there are no surgical options, because of how widespread the cancer cells become.

But there is hope that a new form of drug could change the way we treat leukaemia, thanks to a discovery by a team from the Stanford University School of Medicine. As many of the best scientific discoveries are, this one was made by accident, when the researchers were doing their best to keep some leukaemia cells alive in a petri dish so they could continue to study their behaviour.  

These were precursor B-cell lymphoblastic leukaemia cells (B-ALL), which cause the most common type of ALL; about 85 percent of children with ALL have the B-ALL form. “We were throwing everything at them to help them survive,” lead researcher and assistant professor of medicine, Ravi Majeti, said in a press release.

One of the team, Scott McClellan, noticed that some of the leukaemia cells were morphing into different sizes and shapes, and eventually started to resemble macrophages - the cells they would have become had they not remained stunted and cancerous. Looking back at previous research in which a separate team managed to alter the growth of leukaemia cells in mice, the team soon realised that cancerous lymphoblasts could be forced into mature, harmless macrophages when combined with certain types of proteins that altered their genetic activity. 

Using these proteins, the team replicated the results of the previous mouse study using human cancer cells. They successfully transformed them into macrophages, and these macrophages went on to ‘eat’ any cancer cells and pathogens the researchers threw at them. They've even proven to be especially good at fighting leukaemia cells themselves, Majeti said. "Because the macrophage cells came from the cancer cells, they will already carry with them the chemical signals that will identify the cancer cells, making an immune attack against the cancer more likely."

The results have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:

"We show here that cancerous cells from B-ALL patients can be reprogrammed, causing them to change into cells that resemble normal macrophages and can perform macrophage-associated functions such as the consumption of bacteria. 

Importantly, unlike typical B-ALL cells, these reprogrammed cells are no longer able to cause disease in immunodeficient mice. Finally, we show that this reprogramming process may occur to some degree in patients with B-ALL. This indicates that reprogramming B-ALL cells into macrophages might represent a previously unidentified therapeutic strategy.”

The next step is to develop a drug that can prompt the transformation of the lymphoblasts on its own. One option is an existing cancer drug - Retinoic acid - which is used to turn cancer cells into mature cells called granulocytes. Perhaps it could be used to induce the same transformation in leukaemia patients too. 

திருநீறு (விபூதி) பூசுவதால் விளையும் நன்மைகள்:-

நீறில்லா நெற்றி பாழ்’ என்பது நாம் அனைவரும் அறிந்த பேச்சு வழக்கு. பசுவின் சாணத்தை எடுத்து அதனை சுட்டு சாம்பலாக்கிய பஸ்மமே சுத்தமான விபூதி ஆகும். விபூதி தரிப்பது ஆன்மீக சம்பந்தமான நன்மைகள் விளைவதுடன், உடல்நலம் சார்ந்த நன்மைகளும் உண்டாகும் என்பது சான்றோர்களின் கருத்தாகும்.

திருநீரால் விளையும் நன்மைகள்:-

திருநீறு வீட்டில் இருந்தால் அதன் மூலம் தடுக்கப்படும் வியாதிகள் அநேகம் என்பதை டாக்டர். கணபதி ஆவணப்படுத்துகிறார். அவற்றுள் சில:

தலைவலி நீரேற்றம் தலைப்பாரம் இவற்றிற்கு திருநீற்றை வெளிப்புறம் பூச வேண்டும்.

பல்வலி, ஈறில் இரத்தம் படித்தல் இவற்றுக்கு திருநீர்ருடன் சூடம்(கற்பூரம்) கலந்து பல்துலக்க வேண்டும்.

எலும்புத்தேய்மானம், உடல் எலும்பு வளர்ச்சி இன்மை, குழந்தைகளுக்கு பற்கள் திடீரென்று விழுதல், சளி, வறட்டு இருமல் இவற்றுக்குத் திருநீற்றை தேனுடன் 500 மில்லி கிராம் முதல் 1 கிராம் வரை உண்ணலாம்.

நீர்க்கட்டு, நீர் எரிச்சல் இவற்றுக்கு இளநீருடன் திருநீற்றைக் கலந்து கொடுக்கலாம்.

திருநீறு கிருமிநாசினியும் கூட. அதனை உடல் முழுவதும் பூசுவதனால் உடலில் உள்ள துர்நாற்றம் மறையும் என இயற்கை மருத்துவம் கூறுகிறது.

நெற்றியில் தரிப்பதனால் தலைக்குள் கோர்க்கும் நீரினை திருநீறு வெளியேற்றுகிறது.

விதிப்படியமைந்த திருநீற்றை உட்கோண்டால் உடம்பின் அசுத்தங்கள் அனைத்தையும் போக்கி நாடிநரம்புகள் அனைத்திற்கும் வலிமையை கொடுக்கும்.

மனித உடலிலே நெற்றி முக்கிய பாகமாகக் கருதப்படுகின்றது. அந்த நெற்றியிலேயே வெப்பம் அதிகமாகவும் வெளியிடப்படுகின்றது, உள் இழுக்கப்படுகின்றது. சூரியக்கதிர்களின் சக்தியை இழுத்து சரியான முறையில் உள்ளனுப்பும் அற்புதமான தொழிலை திருநீறு செய்யும் அதனாலேயே திருநீறை நெற்றியில் இடுவார்கள்.

இரு புருவங்களுக்கும் இடையிலுள்ள பகுதியில் மிக நுண்ணிய நரம்பு அதிர்வலைகளை உள்ளன. அதனால் அந்த இடத்தைப் பயன்படுத்தி மனவசியம் இலகுவாகச் செய்யமுடியும். அதனாலேயே மனவசியத்தைத் தடுக்க அந்த இடத்தில் திருநீறு, சந்தனம் போன்றவை இடப்படுகின்றன.

எந்த பொருளை சுட்டாலும் அது கரியாகி பின்னர் சாம்பல் ஆகும். சாம்பலை மேற்க்கொண்டு எரிக்க முடியாது. இதன் மூலம் இது வாழ்வின் நிலையற்ற தன்மையை உணர்த்துகிறது. முடிவில் முடிசார்ந்த மன்னரும் ஒரு பிடி சாம்பல் ஆகும் நியதியை இது சுட்டிக் காட்டுகிறது.

Romantic Pictures

How cancer spreads a new view

Nine out of ten cancer patients die because cancer cells enter the blood circulation, spread and form tumours at distant organs. In circulation, cells can move individually or in a cluster. It is believed that cells moving individually pose the highest risk of forming tumours and are the primary “villains”.

A recent study we published in the Journal of Royal Society Interface  shows that this may not be true. Instead, cells that move in a cluster might be the primary “villains”, hence asking for new ways of fighting the spread of cancer.

Cells in most primary tumours are usually immovable and tied to each other. But some of them lose their adhesion and start invading their neighbouring tissue, gaining access to blood vessels and entering circulation.

All in it together

A few cells that move individually also attain special properties that allow them to adapt to a new environment and seed a new tumour there. These traits are similar to the traits of stem cells – that’s why these cells are called as ‘Cancer Stem Cells’. They are resistant to all current cancer therapies, and can start a new tumor in any organ.

We found that cells moving collectively are more likely to become Cancer Stem Cells and thus are the primary “villains” of metastasis – the spread of cancer to different organs. This occurs because the mechanism by which cancer cells decide to move collectively also triggers the mechanism which converts it into stem cells, but if cancer cells decide to move individually, their mechanism to gain properties of stem cells can be shut down. Therefore, cells moving in a cluster in the bloodstream pose a much higher risk of starting a new tumour at a distant organ than those moving individually.

This finding means that to fight metastasis, we need new drugs that can breakdown clumps of cancer cells, not lone agents.

Team work has benefits

Posing a higher risk of metastasis is not the only advantage of moving collectively for a cancer. Cells moving individually in circulation die more frequently than those moving as a cluster, thus more clusters than individual cells reach the metastatic site.

Also, when these cells grow into a new tumour, they need to settle down in their new place quickly. This is because cells can’t multi-task efficiently – they can either divide or move. After reaching the new site, they want to start dividing, and doing that is much easier for cells moving collectively. They adhere to each other, rather than find something settle down.

Leaving their primary home, surviving in the harsh conditions in the human bloodstream, and then settling down and seeding a new home (a secondary tumor) at a distant organ, is not easy. And cancer seems to prepare its “soldiers” well for this by instructing them to move in a group or cluster.

Collective migration of cells is a well-planned strategy adopted by cancer for its utmost benefit – cells moving collectively die less in circulation, find it easy to settle down in a new organ, and most importantly, are more drug-resistant and potent to start a new tumour.

Published in collaboration with The Conversation

Author: Mofit Kumar Jolly is a graduate student in Cancer Systems Biology at Rice University.

Image: A radiologist examines the brain X-rays of a patient who underwent a cancer prevention medical check-up at the North Bengal Oncology Center, a cancer hospital, on the outskirts of the eastern Indian city of Siliguri February 25, 2009. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

Posted by Mofit Kumar Jolly

https://agenda.weforum.org

Wind Farms by 2020.

A new report has revealed that while the global economy continued to grow throughout 2014, our collective carbon emissions stalled - something we haven’t managed to do over the past 40 years. And the group behind the report - the International Energy Agency (IEA) - are putting it down to the serious uptake of renewable energy facilities by governments around the world.

While the actual amount of carbon we emitted is pretty sobering - 32.3 billion tonnes- it’s unchanged from what we dished up in 2013, while the global economy saw a growth of 3 percent. The report shows three times in the past 40 years where carbon emissions remained unchanged from the previous year - once in the early 1980’s, 1992 and 2009 - but this is the first time the event has been coupled with economic growth.

"This is both a very welcome surprise and a significant one. It provides much-needed momentum to negotiators preparing to forge a global climate deal in Paris in December: for the first time, greenhouse gas emissions are decoupling from economic growth,” IEA chief economist Fatih Birol, said in a press release. "This gives me even more hope that humankind will be able to work together to combat climate change, the most important threat facing us today.”

So what’s changed? A big part of it, the researchers suggest, is China’s serious uptake of renewable energy sources. Just last week, it was reported that China’s wind farms are producing more energy than all of America’s nuclear power plants combined, and enough to power 110 million homes. And they plan to more than double their current wind energy production by 2020.

Meanwhile, researchers in the US have figured out that it’s economically viable to provide 10 percent of the of the national energy requirements through wind farms by 2020, and in less than 40 years, they could be running on over 30 percent wind power. 

As well as the increasing uptake of renewable energy by the biggest nations on the planet, people are actually getting smarter about their energy use, and appliance manufacturers and doing their bit too. A recent report by the US Energy Information Administration has predicted that in the United States, the average energy use per person will decline throughout 2012 to 2040 to a level not seen since 1965. They say more energy-efficient appliances and cars are having a significant effect.

“For the first time demand is untethered to GDP,” Alex Laskey, the president of Opower, a liaison company between utility providers and customers, told Chris Mooney at The Washington Post. “And that’s because of efficiency, self generation, and so on… we can make do with less.”

So… good job, humans? Not that we can celebrate for too long, because climate change is still very much real and and still very much wreaking havoc on the planet, but reports like this are so important in proving to ourselves that things don’t have to keep getting worse. 

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.sciencealert.com/

First Indian Lesbian Wedding Shannon and Seema have taken place in America

In keeping with Hindu tradition, Seema was carried into her wedding on a Doli by her family.Their traditional Indian ceremony featured many ancient traditions, including a traditional interpretation of ‘tying the knot’. Shannon and Seema also exchanged rings.

A process for your personality test

Carpenter who cut off his fingers makes 'Robohand' with 3-D printer

"I was in a position to see exactly what happens in the human hand. I got the basics of what it's all about and thought yeah, I'll make my own." Richard van As is recalling the moment in May 2011 when he sat in a Johannesburg hospital waiting to hear if his fingers could be stitched back on. Just an hour earlier, he had been in his carpentry workshop sawing wood when the saw slipped and ripped diagonally through the four fingers on his right hand. "It all happened too quickly to know what actually happened," he remembers.

Rather than fear the outcome, or dwell on the repercussions of losing his fingers, he was already thinking of ways to fix the problem, like a true carpenter.

After days of scouring the Internet he couldn't find anywhere to buy a functional prosthetic finger and he was astonished at the cost of prosthetic hands and limbs which began in the tens of thousands of dollars. But his online surfing paid off as it brought him to an amateur video posted by a mechanical effects artist in Washington State, by the name of Ivan Owen.

Together, the pair developed a mechanical finger for van As, but their partnership has also gone on to benefit countless hand and arm amputees around the globe, through the birth of the company "Robohand."

Officially launched in January 2012, Robohand creates affordable mechanical prosthetics through the use of 3D printers. Not only that, but it has made its designs open source, so that anyone with access to such printers can print out fingers, hands and now arms as well.

Source: CNN

Cannabis, Consciousness and Common Sense

Almost everyone (arguably) has used cannabis recreationally at one time or another. Most people see it as little more than a natural substance that can cause a temporary euphoria and yet, in some people’s opinions, it is a drug that creates laziness and a depleted drive to contribute to society with any degree of intelligence. This opinion is often based on stereotype rather than experience.

Our governments have used stereotypes to keep us from considering that cannabis can be used sensibly or for a deeper purpose. A lot of people believe it has a wealth of spiritual uses that can help us tear down our mind-driven barriers and raise our spiritual vibration – as long as our purpose and intention in using it is clearly aligned to finding a higher vibration.

Anyone who researches cannabis and spirituality will find consistent advice to use it respectfully, in a proper setting and with the proper intentions. Our intentions and expectations create our reality, so if we use cannabis with the intention of simply ‘getting high’ as opposed to exploring our consciousness, a small, euphoric high is exactly what it will give us. On the other hand, ecstatic meditative bliss and insight can result when it’s used properly; the way the ancients used it, who knew about its potential.

Stereotype = Distraction

Beyond it’s medicinal and industrial uses, there are many spiritual benefits of cannabis. This plant has much more potential to help mankind than we give it credit for. I think its potential to help the world is why cannabis and hemp are both outlawed, despite all of the amazing things they could do if they were legal. There are interests out there who want to keep cannabis and hemp illegal, because they know cannabis can help people socially and spiritually awaken and they know hemp has a lot of uses that could grab profits away from the cotton and timber industries, among others. These interests don’t want people to explore the potential meditative benefits of cannabis, nor do they want hemp to be used as widely, industrially and medicinally, as it has been for centuries.

One of cannabis’ common effects is to alter people’s perceptions and awaken them to spirit, and the injustices that take place every day. For centuries, different cultures have used cannabis (and other plants) in a spiritual and/or ceremonial setting (the same cultures who, in some cases, used hemp industrially), and it is no mistake that this tradition carries on into today. But still, some people see cannabis as little more than a drug that, in their eyes, just makes you dumber.

Part of me wonders if the interests who profit from its illegality have purposely perpetuated the stereotypes that surround it in an effort to turn the world against it. The less aware the general public is, the more the planetary controllers profit from our ignorance. But at the same time, like any consciousness-altering substance, we shouldn’t hide from the real negative aspects of its use. We don’t want to deny the negative things that can come with consuming cannabis, particularly when it is abused, but we also don’t want to let stereotypes dupe us into thinking it can’t be used positively or progressively either.

I think it can, and a growing number of people who’ve felt the intense meditative effects of this revolutionary plant would agree with me.

Dependence and Responsible Use

Like anything else, cannabis can become destructive if it isn’t used responsibly. I think it can be used routinely without becoming an unhealthy crutch, as long as a few ideals are kept in mind and its use can be ceased without the user becoming unstable.

If emotional or psychological instability results from an inability to consume it, it might point to dependence and the user might be best to take a break and evaluate why they’re really using it and if their prolonged use is hurting more than helping.

The herb can be used safely, respectfully and responsibly if the user remembers a few things – one of which is that, although it is benign in its nature, it is very powerful. It can help us open our minds, but it can also cause us to close our minds and depend on it for any degree of happiness, wholeness or spirituality.

Embracing the Taboo

Even if our culture thinks it’s taboo, I think cannabis (and especially its cousin, hemp) has more to offer society than most people realize. It has the power to expand minds and introduce the newly awakened to the reality of spirit and the possibility of changing this world with creativity, and its potential isn’t meant to be overlooked.

Even if it aligns me with the “hippie” stereotypes out there, I openly support the herb for its spiritual benefits, even in the face of all of the negativity and naysaying that’s constantly thrown at it. The herb retains a quiet dignity throughout all of the condemnation, silently and patiently awaiting the day when it can finally show us what it can do.

I’m not saying everyone should try it, and it definitely isn’t for all of us. It would bring some people down and densify their vibration, because they’ve already raised and maintained their vibration to a point where it wouldn’t help them anymore. There are others, however (even those who maintain a consistently high vibration) who benefit tremendously from its use and the potent meditations that can result. Some people don’t use it for any spiritual purposes, but to help them relax and clear their minds of all of the stress and drama that comes with living on earth, without the negative physical side effects associated with alcohol.

I could write a whole other article about alcohol, which I don’t think poses much genuine spiritual value and, in my opinion, is much more harmful than cannabis… but I’ll leave that for another time.

Conclusion

The intention of this article was to provide a (hopefully) sensible perspective on what I feel is cannabis’ genuine spiritual value, and I stand by the legions of people who advocate it. We have to follow our passions in life, and if you’re passionate about something most of society still shuns, you might have to look deep within and find the courage to pursue your passion despite the fact that others will judge and condemn you for it.

Condemnation isn’t the way of the new world we want to create, and hopefully, everyone will eventually respect our different perspectives, opinions and passions. When we can all respect our differences, and honor what mother nature provides, we can come together to create something better and more in favor of the needs of the many (as opposed to the few) than our current system.

We have to set the example by loving and respecting each other right now, and this involves the willingness not to reject people who think differently or embrace things that society shuns – including our right to access other states of consciousness.

I think society will eventually accept cannabis, and the acceptance is already beginning with its use becoming legal in a few different states here in the U.S. The time has come for cannabis’ benefits (and downsides) to be understood in a levelheaded way, and those of you who are passionate about it can feel free to break any silence you may have maintained and voice your support for this popular spiritual assistant.

In embracing it, keep in mind that there are right and wrong ways to use it. Be careful not to fall into the trap of dependence that so many users seem to have fallen into. Almost anything can be good if used responsibly, and it’s similar to how you wouldn’t want to drink too much tea or eat too much food – because of the obvious negative consequences. But the negative aspects of cannabis use (or of the use of anything else) don’t necessarily have to deter us from embracing it; we’ll just want to keep those negative aspects in mind. Centeredness can go a long way, so if you choose to experience the ‘sacred herb’, let’s remember to be sensible.

 Wes Annac 

Sensory Perceptions

Rich with sensory perception, our human experience allows us to take in and assimilate the world around us. Unlike the rainbow portraying the very basics of color schematics, the real world vibrates with a truly unlimited spectrum of possibilities. Not limited to merely seven colors, we bless our eyes for bringing to us a full-color array that changes with alterations of light and perspective. Similarly, we bless our Creator for showing us precious bits of digestible life, all the while we fully comprehend that more than we observe and understand exists in our grand gourmet of choices.

“Here is my secret. It is very simple. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” --Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Le Petit Prince

Our relationships with one another bring far greater depth and complexity than the limitations of sensory observation allow. Like the grand earth and all its vibrations, those around us –ourselves included – put forth a limited range of who we are, for others to see. 

Now, the two elements of the human equation – what truly exists compared to what our limitations allow us to perceive and what we put forth for others to see vs. their ability to see it – add a doubly variable basis for establishing, forming and maintaining relationships with one another. 

Who are you, really? 

Over the years, various psychological studies hypothesize we use about 10% of our total brain capacity. That, alone, astounds us by demonstrating we rarely dare to exert the other 90% of our capability. What comprises that inert 90%? Mystical, elusive and often fearful traits popularly bear the reputation of that unknown brain store.

The notion of true genius rests in people demonstrating perhaps a larger percentage of brain usage. But what if genius had nothing to do with the filing cabinet of facts and figures, and more to do with connecting to spirit for intuition and understanding of that we do not see using merely the ten percent?

Additionally, we must also understand that like the limitations of the spectrum of sensory perception and the 10% of human brain usage, who we truly are as a physical being reflects a mere fraction of our true selves as a spiritual being. 

When we consider the wide range of non-physical experiences our soul carries forth, these bodies - or vehicles – merely experience the possibilities limited on the earth plane. As we ponder our spiritual existence, our mind stalls as the magnitude overwhelms us. Like gazing at billions of stars in countless galaxies, our limited awareness barely comprehends the full breadth of our spiritual truth.

Understanding the human limits 

Like living within our means financially, we quickly learn that our human bodies constrain us in many ways. Subject to the limitations of the law of gravity, for instance, mankind overcame his avian desires by building airplanes and other modes of aviation. The myth of Daedalus and his son Icarus exemplifies failed attempts at human flight independently, at will.

Similarly, we understand the restrictions of spirit as captured into the human experience. Like seeing birds in flight and knowing that mobility is impossible for us, we get loving glimpses of spirit at work in our life and believe that, too, eludes us. Thus far, technology sidesteps or never considers the spiritual or invisible component to our earthly experience, and therefore fails to account for the spiritual component at work in human lives each day. 

Multiple ports of entry

The news media proves effective by using several modes of sensory input to convey a story. For thousands of years, the spoken word prevailed as the primary source of information from person to person, and generation to generation.Then, somewhere along the timeline, the written word emerged, lending a second component to communication.

Ever since Gutenberg, the printed word reigned as the staple of information exchange. Five hundred years later (give or take), recorded audio began as Edison brought the phonograph to the general marketplace.

From there, various regenerations of audio media integrated into our culture and now we enjoy personal systems, satellite television and more. Researchers over the years learned that the impact of an intended message intensifies when the message is presented using more than one sensory receptor.

That means that if you get your news on television, for example, you see it and hear it. Therefore, the news’ ability to reach you is greater and your ability to receive and remember it, is greater, too.

Add to the visual pictures, the scrolling bar along the bottom of major news channels, you engage in reading, watching pictures and colors and hearing. A triple whammy to hit your brain! As of yet, the transmission of smell, taste and touch is not possible, but when that occurs, the retention ratio will skyrocket! Think of the scratch-and-sniff ads in your favorite magazine. Why did they do that? It wasn’t effective enough to let you see and read about a perfume. Once you see, read and smell, presumably, you’re hooked!

The illusion of what we perceive.

In high school, a wise teacher once told our class, “Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.” Looking back, I realize her direction not only addressed the unreliability of gossip and hearsay, or even the media for that matter, but also spoke to our interpretive abilities as limited by the human experience.

Not meaning to second guess or inspire doubt in what we believe we know for certain, let us remember to keep a healthy perspective when taking in information of any sort. Spirit knows no limitation of any kind. Our higher self recognizes things on more than a physical, human level – it sees what Antoine de Saint Exupéry, says “is invisible to the eye.”

The spiritual connection within us, when trusted, acknowledges what is essential – whether or not our ability to perceive it exists. When our awareness of the illusions comes to light, our ability to thrive peacefully increases along with the connection to Spirit and the Infinite. We are human beings struggling to move forward in a world with built-in perception restrictions. We are so much more than our human limitations! 

Remember what is essential to you, take a deep breath and trust that your higher self senses all and shows you the truth.

Marlene Buffa 

Homemade Syrup That Burns Belly Fat

Ingredients that you need to prepare the syrup:

4.5 oz / 125 grams horseradish
4 lemons
3 spoons of honey
2 tsp cinnamon
1 piece of ginger (2 cm)
Method of preparation:

Mix the horseradish and the ginger in a blender. Squeeze the juice out of lemons and add it into the blender. Mix for 2-3 minutes. Add 3 spoons of honey, and 2 tsp of cinnamon and mix again until you get the syrup. Store the syrup in a jar.

How to use it?

Take 1 tablespoon, 2 times a day before meals, or before cardio workouts. Consume it 3 weeks and then make a pause of several days.