New biological studies reconfirm that “human nature” is no excuse for violence

Wiki image

J.G. Vibes
Activist Post

In a world filled with mostly well-intentioned people and tons of senseless violence it's completely natural for those people to develop an assortment of justifications and rationalizations for the horror that is taking place around them.

One of the most popular of these rationalizations is what I like to call “the human nature cop out”. This is basically the notion that violence taking place around the world is justified because humans are naturally prone to violence, and that’s just “the way it is”.

As I discussed in an article last month, this idea is extremely dangerous because it allows people to accept behavior that is detrimental to the well being of our species. This is really common sense, but there has actually been a scientific consensus that humans are not innately violent for well over 20 years. In 1986 scientists from around the world got together and shared psychological and biological evidence until they came to the conclusion that human nature is no excuse for violent behavior. The findings that were released came to be known as “The Seville Statement”. This statement made 5 propositions, which are:

1. "It is scientifically incorrect to say that we have inherited a tendency to make war from our animal ancestors."
2. "It is scientifically incorrect to say that war or any other violent behavior is genetically programmed into our human nature."
3. "It is scientifically incorrect to say that in the course of human evolution there has been a selection for aggressive behavior more than for other kinds of behavior."
4. "It is scientifically incorrect to say that humans have a 'violent brain'."
5. "It is scientifically incorrect to say that war is caused by 'instinct' or any single motivation."

This profound statement has been ignored by the mainstream media for decades and maligned by many state sponsored foundations. According to psychologist and researcher Aflie Kohn, the media actually told the scientists “call us back when you find a gene for war,” after they released the Seville statement. However, despite this lack of attention new studies continue to reconfirm that human nature is no excuse for violence.

This past Monday in Vancouver, British Columbia at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a biologist named Frans de Waal put forward the idea that adopting a more cooperative culture is possible, necessary and natural for our species. According to his studies, animals are naturally prone to co-operation when in the right circumstances, which reconfirms the Seville statements consensus. Hopefully this new study can tear down some of the barriers that are created by our cultures defeatist perception of “human nature”.

By accepting the view that humans are naturally violent, our culture is basically saying that we are wild beasts that need to be controlled, and since violence is accepted, violence is ultimately used in this process of "controlling". This very idea is the root of genocide, oppression and exploitation. The violence that we see in our society today, and the violence that we see throughout history is actually only acted out by a very small percentage of the population. This tiny percentage of our population is obviously a “bad sample” in terms of measuring what our species is actually capable of.

J.G. Vibes is an author, and artist -- with an established record label. In addition to featuring a wide variety of activist information, his company Good Vibes Promotions hosts electronic dance music events. You can keep up with him and his forthcoming book Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance, at his website. AOTMR will be released in March 2012, thanks to Leilah Publications. This project features nearly 100 different essays, just like this one, that cover a wide variety of topics. These essays give historical and philosophical insight into the many important issues that our generation faces. From banking cartels and alternative currency to eugenics and the drug war, AOTMR offers a complete and comprehensive breakdown of the counter culture’s struggle.

Save Hollie From Judicial Paedo-Perverts

SUPPORT HOLLIE GREIG AT -

THE ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE

FRIDAY 2ND MARCH

10AM


This Friday, the 2nd March, Anne and Hollie Grieg are back in court in their
continuing struggle to prevent Shropshire Social Services from removing
Hollie from her mother.

Your support is needed.

If you are unfamiliar with the case, please watch this short video:



We are meeting outside the Royal Courts of Justice, which is on the Strand in
London, at 10am.

Please pass the word, and be there!

Robert Green their helper is in jail.

Be there to prove that we are all still human beings who care about the elites stealing and raping children, using Family Courts to procure their victims. Hollie Greig was raped by Police, judges and social workers.

Now they want her and her mother Anne silenced.

Shropshire Social Services should be closed.

They are the most despicable people on the planet.

How to make Rick Simpson's Cancer Curing HempCannabis Oil

Uploaded by danielofdoriaa on 14 Feb 2012

Cannabis has an ancient history of ritualistic use for spiritual exploration. According to one description, when the elixir of
life was produced from 'samudra manthan' or 'churning of the ocean', Shiva created cannabis from his own body to purify the
elixir (whence, for cannabis, the epithet angaj or body-born). Another account suggests that the cannabis plant sprang when a
drop of the elixir dropped on the ground. Thus, cannabis is used by sages due to association with elixir and Shiva.

MORE INFO ON RICK SIMPSON HERE:-
http://www.cannabisni.com/medicinal-cannabis-news/1194-how-to-make-hemp-oil-b...

British Vitamin Supplement Sales Soar as Consumers Tricked into Toxic Trap

By Anthony Gucciardi

Contributing Writer for Wake Up World

Supplement sales are soaring in Britain as more and more Brits become savvy to the fact that the nutrient-depleted food supply is simply not sufficient when it comes to obtaining and maintaining optimal health. What many of these Brits do not realize, however, is that not all supplements are of equal value to your body.

In fact, many supplements sold in pharmacies and grocery stores around the globe are loaded with synthetic vitamins, which could actually be wreaking havoc on your biological function. These synthetic formulas are sold in chain stores like Sainsbury’s, where vitamin C sales have increased by 200% in 2 years while multivitamin sales doubled. Of these supplements, many are popular brands loaded with not only lab-made vitamins, but toxic fillers as well.

Are you buying toxic supplements?

Brands like the super-popular Flinstones Complete vitamins fall into this category, containing toxic ingredients such as:

Sorbitol: a synthetic sweetener which has been linked to gastrointestinal distress and more severe disorders when administered in higher concentrations.

Vitamin E (dl-alpha tocopherol acetate): a petrochemically derived analogue of natural vitamin E which may act as an endocrine disruptor and interfere with the heart protective natural vitamin E isomer gamma tocopherol.

FD&C Red #40 Aluminium Lake: a chemical that is known to be neurotoxic.

Cupric Oxide: An inorganic (non-amino acid bound) form of copper which exhibits toxicity.

Vitamin A Acetate: A petrochemically produced byproduct that is capable of causing birth defects.

Unfortunately, many consumers believe that any vitamin is beneficial to their health, which is simply not the case. What these consumers who purchase synthetic products are really buying into is toxic health. Even more alarming is the fact that many studies on the effects of vitamins that dispel their beneficial effects are also studying these harmful synthetic forms, leading to inaccurate and misleading conclusions. This is the kind of research that the mainstream media loves to use against health-promoting supplements that actually use high quality whole food ingredients.

Avoiding this health trap

While synthetic vitamin brands litter grocery stores and pharmacies across the globe, it is fairly simple to avoid these health bombs. If you stick to high quality, whole food based supplements then you will immediately eliminate 90% of the problem. The next step is to look for 100% organic ingredients, and check the “other ingredients” list on the back of the label. You will want to avoid ingredients such as: Maltodextrin, stearic acid, magnesium stearate, and modified maize starch.

Supplements are a great way to improve your health naturally, however you should exercise caution when purchasing nutraceuticals in chain stores and always remember to read the labels.

About the author:

Anthony Gucciardi is an accomplished investigative journalist with a passion for natural health. Anthony’s articles have been featured on top alternative news websites such as Infowars, NaturalNews, Rense, and many others. Anthony is the co-founder of Natural Society, a website dedicated to sharing life-saving natural health techniques. Stay in touch with Natural Society via the following sites Facebook – Twitter – Web

The Great Gibson Guitar Raid: Months Later, Still No Charges Filed

Uploaded by ReasonTV on 23 Feb 2012

"They...come in with weapons, they seized a half-million dollars worth of property, they shut our factory down, and they have not charged us with anything," says Gibson Guitars CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, referring to the August 2011 raid on his Nashville and Memphis factories by agents from the Departments of Homeland Security and Fish & Wildlife.

The feds raided Gibson for using an inappropriate tariff code on wood from India, which is a violation of the anti-trafficking statute known as The Lacey Act. At issue is not whether the wood in question was endangered, but whether the wood was the correct level of thickness and finish before being exported from India. "India is wanting to ensure that raw wood is not exported without some labor content from India," says Juskiewicz.

Andrea Johnson of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) counters that "it's not up to Gibson to decide which laws...they want to respect." She points out that Gibson had previously been raided under The Lacey Act for imports from Madagascar.

This much is clear: The government has yet to file any charges or allow Gibson a day in court to makes its case, much less retrieve its materials. "This is not about responsible forestry and sustainable wood or illegal logging, this is about a bureaucratic law," argues Juszkiewicz, who testified last year before a congressional hearing convened by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). It is, he says, "a blank check for abuse."

About 6 minutes. Written, produced, and narrated by Anthony L. Fisher; shot by Joshua Swain.

Music: "Improvisation: Fast Blues in A" by Rev. Gary Davis

Go to http://www.reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube Channel to receive automatic updates when new material goes live.

the Fast Show returns!

...The Fast Show is back! For more brand new episodes of The Fast Show get yourself over to http://www.fosters.co.uk/thefastshow.

Scorchio? You can say that again. Watch Episode One as Downton Abbey gets The Fast Show treatment and your favourite characters from the cult TV comedy sketch show make a long awaited return.

The new episodes, all brought to you by Foster's Funny, are released on Thursdays at 1pm, starting from 10 November 2011. Featuring the original cast of The Fast Show, including Charlie Higson, Paul Whitehouse, Caroline Aherne, Simon Day, John Thomson and Arabella Weir.

And don't forget Fast Share! If you share the new episodes quickly enough, you can unlock exclusive hidden sketches from the Show.

Again, http://www.fosters.co.uk/thefastshow is the place to go to find out more

Occupy London protests find Land Registry St.Paul's Cathedral loophole

Uploaded by liarpoliticians on 23 Feb 2012

The protesters at London's "Occupy" movement claim to have found a loophole in the ownership of land surrounding St.Paul's Cathedral, and so they claim to have registered the land at The Land Registry to a homeless man who sleeps on the steps there.

Recorded from BBC London News, 23 February 2012.

Study: Passage Of Medical Marijuana Laws Correlated With Fewer Suicides

Paul Armentano
NORML

The enactment of statewide laws allowing for the limited use of cannabis therapeutically is associated with reduced instances of suicide, according to a discussion paper published recently by the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany.

Researchers at Montana State University, the University of Colorado, and San Diego State University assessed rates of suicide in the years before and after the passage of statewide medical marijuana laws.

Authors found, “The total suicide rate falls smoothly during the pre-legalization period in both MML (medical marijuana law) and non-MML states. However, beginning in year zero, the trends diverge: the suicide rate in MML states continues to fall, while the suicide rate in states that never legalized medical marijuana begins to climb gradually.”

They reported that this downward trend in suicides in states post-legalization was especially pronounced in males. “Our results suggest that the passage of a medical marijuana law is associated with an almost 5 percent reduction in the total suicide rate, an 11 percent reduction in the suicide rate of 20- through 29-year-old males, and a 9 percent reduction in the suicide rate of 30- through 39-year-old males,” they determined.

Authors theorized that the limited legalization of cannabis may “lead to an improvement in the psychological well-being of young adult males, an improvement that is reflected in fewer suicides.” They further speculated, “The strong association between alcohol consumption and suicide-related outcomes found by previous researchers raises the possibility that medical marijuana laws reduce the risk of suicide by decreasing alcohol consumption.”

They concluded: “Policymakers weighing the pros and cons of legalization should consider the possibility that medical marijuana laws may lead to fewer suicides among young adult males.”

Full text of the discussion paper here, “High on Life: Medical Marijuana Laws and Suicide.”

Please visit and support NORML to help end marijuana prohibition. To have NORML's news alerts and legislative advisories delivered straight to your in-box, sign up here.

Pirates of Penzance - A new world record

Uploaded by lesserspottedbograt on 20 Feb 2012

Official Guiness Book of Records: The presentation of the World Record Certificate for having the most pirates in one place, at one time. 8,734.....beating Hastings and Canada.

Terror War Cheerleader Gets Reality Check On Underwear Bomber Facts

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, February 21, 2012

A proponent of the war on terror was left with egg on his face during a recent C-Span appearance when caller after caller hammered home the fact that the underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was allowed to board Delta flight 253 by the U.S. government.

The victim of this ‘truth bomb’ was Mickey McCarter, a prominent mouthpiece for the military-industrial complex that relies heavily on the manufactured ‘war on terror’ to the tune of billions of dollars every year. McCarter is a journalist specializing in “homeland security matters” and has also worked for government agencies like the US Navy’s Bureau of Naval Personnel and the Defense Contract Management Agency.

After discussing the recent conviction of the underwear bomber with no mention of the fact that he boarded the plane only with the aid of the U.S. government, McCarter faced a barrage of callers who set him straight. The first caller immediately drew attention to Flight 253 passenger Kurt Haskell, an attorney who witnessed a well dressed Indian man force airport officials to let Abdulmutallab board the plane despite the fact that he had no passport and was on a terror watchlist.

“Why would a CIA agent….get that guy on the plane,” the caller asked, to which McCarter responded by claiming, “I am not familiar with the story,” before erroneously claiming that Abdulmutallab “raised no alarm”.

In reality, the State Department was ordered not to revoke Abdulmutallab’s visa by “federal counterterrorism officials” even though the accused bomber had known terrorist ties, in addition to the fact that his own father had warned U.S. intelligence officials of the threat posed by Abdulmutallab a month before the attempted attack.

After initially claiming otherwise, the FBI finally had to admit that Kurt Haskell’s testimony was true. When Abdulmutallab signaled he wanted to call Haskell as a defense witness, it threatened to blow the whole case wide open. However, within 48 hours he mysteriously withdrew the call and admitted all eight counts of guilt.

The notion that McCarter, who bills himself as a terror expert, has no idea about Kurt Haskell’s testimony, FBI confirmation of the fact, in addition to media reports concerning how AbdulMutallab was helped on the plane by a well-dressed man, over two years after it was initially revealed, is dubious to say the least.

After a second caller again references Haskell’s testimony and makes the connection between the underwear bomber plot and the TSA’s invasive groping policy, he is cut off, before a third caller discusses how the event created the perfect pretext for the introduction of naked body scanners, which just happened to make a lot of money for security officials like Michael Chertoff who were heavily invested in them at the time.

The final caller again hits on the fact that Abdulmutallab was allowed to board the airplane, noting that Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy told a hearing that the bomber was let on the plane because he was being tracked by intelligence agencies who ordered the State Department “not to deny a visa”.

This episode again underscores the fact that – as Hillary Clinton bemoaned last year – we are winning the infowar. Informed Americans in growing numbers are successfully waking up their fellow citizens to the fact that the war on terror is a manufactured hoax wherein intelligence agencies recruit patsies and dupes to carry out attacks which are then used to advance the agenda of the military-industrial complex.

_______

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.

The Pressure Cooker Effect.

by UKCIA

Pressure cookers are great fun. If you’ve never seen one they work by super heating water under pressure. The lid fits tightly onto the base with air tight seals and the only hole is a small one on the top, through a little spindle. You put your food inside with a little water and heat it up. As the water boils you add weights to the spindle which stop the steam escaping, so the pressure inside builds up and the water boils at a higher temperature.

It’s a very fast way to cook and a pretty safe one, but they do go wrong and when they do, the result is something to behold.

As the steam pressure inside builds it takes more weights on top to keep it in. If you heat it up too much or get something else wrong, the weight can blow off and the result is dinner on the ceiling, and it happens very quickly and over a wide area.

What’s this has to do with Cannabis law reform is it provides a wonderful metaphor for prohibition and, specifically, where we are now with events.

Recently the sentencing guidelines for drugs offences were published and they very much reflect the cold light of day shining on the prohibition regime.

What the guidelines do is to set the sentences courts can give out to different levels of offence and you can now expect the same punishment no matter where you live (in England and Wales). Before the the introduction of these guidelines it was all a postcode lottery, you could have ended up with a jail term if you lived in some areas like Sheffield, whereas in others you would have got off with a slapped wrist. Now, it’s all the same everywhere and for small-scale offences very much at the slap wrist end of the scale.

For the full summary of the sentencing guidelines, which are a bit complex, take a look at the Judiciary,gov website

Without going into detail, what it means now is if you are charged with a low-level cannabis offence, you are over 18, there is no supply involved and so on you will get at worst a community service order, at best a discharge.

Now this isn’t decriminalisation, even with a discharge you get a criminal record, although according to Bright Knowledge it only lasts six months and is then spent. Of course this might still mess your life up if you have a good job that requires CRB checks for example, it might cost you your tenancy and more besides.

Release were quick to point out that this isn’t a move towards legalisation and that nothing had changed.

We have received a number of emails from cannabis activists asking for clarification on how the new Sentencing Guidelines will impact on cannabis cultivation and possession. Release provided detailed advice to the Council and has welcomed many of the changes in the guidelines as an improvement on the previous regime, but in relation to cannabis, there has only been a slight shift in approach.

Well, although the Release information is of course correct, it’s not quite true. What has happened is one of the weights has been taken off the pressure cooker. Sure, in some areas this makes little or no difference, but as has already been said, in some areas it does. In some parts of the country this is near revolutionary stuff and some people are not happy.

As Peter Reynolds observed on CLEAR

Judge Murphy revealed his prejudice and cruelty when he said:

“If you had been in front of this court six months ago you would have been going to prison but the law has changed”

Then he went on to demonstrate his ignorance of science and medicine and why he is not fit to preside over any cannabis related case.

“…there are other ways of pain relief”

The Daily Mail is outraged as well. The whole story is reported here.

Now, another health warning. This only applies to low-level offending, although the cultivation level of up to 9 plants is easily enough for moderate self-provision. For heavy users all this is actually bad news, the penalties ramp up significantly for large amounts. What it seems they are trying to do is to draw the line in the sand at a place they think they can hold, by putting more resources into fighting the big supply side. It is a very pragmatic move forced on the authorities by this annoying reality thing.

But for small-scale possession and cultivation, the draconian threat posed by the law has been all but removed. Remember, in theory the law provides for 5 years inside for simple possession of any amount and 14 years for germinating one seed. What this will mean in practice is yet to be seen. It will really depend how much effort the police are going to put into raiding a house of a hobby grower when they know all they’ll get in terms of a result is a discharge? If the police do realise it’s all a big waste of time, effort and money to get such a low return it does begin to look a little more like defacto decriminalisation. This won’t happen immediately of course, we will only know about that in a year or so.

Now, the problem for the drug warriors is simple, hence the analogy of the pressure cooker because they understand this only too well. Prohibition has to be all or nothing. The demand for cannabis is only being held in check by constant enforcement, it’s like the pressure cooker sitting on the gas ring with the gas full on, the best they can ever hope for is to have enough weights to keep the peas and super heated water in. Unless someone can turn the gas down they will always have to be putting more weights on.

In prohibition terms it means constant, ever-increasing enforcement just to keep things as they are. What happens if you take the enforcement away, even a little? Prohibition supporters claim it will lead to a rapid collapse of the whole regime. Thing is, the are probably right.

Fact is once the dust has settled and we see how this is all working, chances are quite high that a significant number of people will decide that a low-level penalty is well worth the risk. After all, the cannabis culture has lived for years with a much higher risk than now seems to be the case. Add to this declining police budgets and the end result can really only be one thing – widespread low-level defiance of the law.

Of course, the prohibs are not at all happy about this and there is now something of a campaign brewing to step up the war on drugs and to make it a real war, where low-level drug use is targeted with severe penalties. Peter Hitchens in the Sunday Mail has been banging on about this for some time, along with the other regulars like Kathy Gyngell of the right-wing Centre for Policy Studies. I’m in an odd situation now where I actually agree with these people in a way; we are at a very decisive moment and we go one of two ways – either toward drug law reform or toward very much harder line prohibition

I suspect an attempt to head this off was at the root of the Release “nothing has changed” statement, which is very much in line with the government message. It’s also why these changes to the sentencing guidelines got almost no coverage in the media. They really are trying to take the weights off the boiling pressure cooker quietly, hoping the pressure inside won’t notice

These changes have only happened because practicalities demanded they happen, there simple is no way the possession law can be enforced consistently everywhere to the level the law provides for and something had to give. There is no doubt the government really does not want to entertain the idea of drug law reform and it would, if it could, do what the drug warriors want. But it’s this cold light of day I mentioned at the start; stricter enforcement would cost a massive amount of money, at a time when essential services are being cut and the country is on the edge of a recession. It’s a fair bet that there is no chance of seeing Hitchen’s campaign for a real drug war.

It will be interesting to see what the Home Affairs Select Committee come up with when they eventually publish their review into the drugs laws, which will partly depend on what happens as a result of these changes to enforcement.

Footnote: It’s also worth noting that medical use of cannabis is now to be accepted as a mitigating circumstance again, having been outlawed a few years ago. That alone has to be worth a reasonable level grunt, if not quite a cheer.

FREE ROBERT GREEN - one year in prison for 'handing out pamphlets'.

by Mike Philbin

I was watching BBC's The Culture Show last night on the resurgence in the Art of Pamphleting, and (apparently) it's just like being back in good-old Victorian England, mideers. All the best writers/journalists are doing it. Pamphleting's a great platform from which to launch a controversial viewpoint or get across a non-mainstream or publisher-unfriendly opinion. It's the latest thing, darling, dontchaknow...

Well, Robert Green is the man behind the Justice for Hollie Greig case; the Down's Syndrome girl who claims to have been systematically used as a child-rape-toy by prominent members of the Scottish establishment. I met Robert at last year's Abel Danger "victory meal", at the Kings Arms here in Oxford (which I arranged) and found him to be a lovely man; soft spoken, considered. He even gave a short interview on camera to Sue Freeman's which was 'live streamed'.

Here's an excerpt from Robert Green's last blog entry before his (kafkaesque) trial:

This week it was announced that Liam Gibson, described as one of Scotland`s most notorious purveyors of child pornography, was spared a jail sentence despite Lothian & Borders Police discovering 50,000 images of child pornography at his home.

In 2009, Douglas Haggarty QC, a senior member of the Legal Aid Board with the responsibility and influence in deciding if I should be granted legal aid, was found to have committed a sexual act with a 17-year-old male prostitute in the public toilet of British Home Stores, St Enoch Centre, Glasgow on a Saturday afternoon at a time when the store was full of families out shopping. Mr Haggarty was not only spared prison, but was allowed to retain his lucrative job in a position of public trust.

In 2001, when Elish Angiolini was busy covering up over Hollie`s allegations, in an unrelated case, a 22-year-old man who admitted to raping a 10-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy was allowed to walk free. This was reported in The Times and The Telegraph in May of that year. Angiolini was subsequently forced into a public apology for her incompetence. This monumental blunder did not prevent her climbing to the highest office in the justice system.

Pamphleting, or handing out information such as this, in the streets now carries a ONE YEAR jail sentence, as handed down (not by a jury trial) but by a single judge acting on behalf of all judges, one imagines, Sheriff Principal Edward Bowen. Well, Judge Bowen came down on Robert Green like a TON OF BRICKS and handed out a ruthless one-year jail sentence for Green's heinous public pamphleting campaign of terror. And let this be a lesson to you all - no one wants the truth out. And they will arrest, detain, claim terrorist on ANYONE who gets in their way. Got that, slave?

Robert Green is currently being held at HMP Aberdeen and he's suggested that people contact his Member of Parliament (David Mowat) at david.mowat.mp@parliament.uk to get this matter raised with the proper authorities, like that'll do much good.

Happy Tibetan New Year

2012 will cross cultures: A Czech Tibetan Buddhist New Year's card. Image Source: Brozkeff's Mandala.

Posted by ToB

Also known as Losar, the Tibetan Buddhist New Year festival is celebrated for 15 days, starting on the first day with drinking a kind of beer called chhaang. The holiday is celebrated in Tibet, Nepal and India and has pre-Buddhist origins. These origins reflect yet another the ancient connection between astronomy, astrology, and the way we measure time. Wiki: "The festival is said to have begun when an old woman named Belma introduced the measurement of time based on the phases of the moon. ... Later when the rudiments of astrology, based on the five elements, were introduced in Tibet, this farmer's festival became what we now call the Losar or New Year's festival." This is the year of the Male Water Dragon and the year is 2139 by the Tibetan count.


The New Year is also associated with predictions. On the occasion of the New Year, the Dalai Lama consults with the Nechung Oracle, who is the Chief State Oracle of Tibet. The Oracle has traditionally made a number of prophecies about the future. Two unrelated Tibetan prophecies for 2012 are online here. You can see them translated and discussed at Digital Tibetan Buddhist Altar. The prophecies appear to talk of an alignment of stars, fire from the sky, and possible floods. But it seems that these things can refer to metaphors, or astrological signs of key players, and many of the words in the prophecies have double meanings. It's an inexact science; the blogger who translates these particular prophecies insists that they depend heavily on interpretation:

"[In] the Water-Dragon Year [which is the year 2012, the world will be] destoyed by overseas [kha chus=chu khas] [enemies], (or alternatively, by the water/flow (chus) of karmic retribution [kha]) [stemming from evil] intentions of previous aspiration (sngon mos), in global/globular (dum bu) holocaust" ...

On the other hand, given the multiple meanings of _chu kha_ and _kha chu_, it could mean simply that someone who reaches sixty years of age, or is born in 2012, gets a urinary tract infection or becomes a urologist: _kha chus_ 'saliva'+ _gzhig_ 'analyzes' means _chu khar_ 'urethra'+ _gzhig_ 'disintegrates', or rather _chu kha_'urethras'+_gzhig_' examines'.

All joking aside, that this prophecy refers to our times is made clear in this text at the middle of page 1 line3:

/bgrang bya bcu bdun them skas la/
/'dzegs na ngal gso'i gnas su bde//

'If one climbs the staircase of the seventeenth enumeration' -- ie, to the end of the seventeenth sexagenary cycle --'there is happiness at a place of relief'. If we can only get through this one...

/thun dong dug mun 'khrigs pas 'grib/


"The [time] interval (thun) is obscured by gathering [clouds] of poison darkness (dug mun)"


I.e. by afflictions of the dark age.


/mkhar nag rtsa bar drug sprul 'khyil/


"Six snakes coil at the foundation of the black castle"


mKhar nag probably means (rgya) gar/dkar and (rgya) nag, ie India and China, meaning the prophecy refers to them. (Incidentally, 'Dragon' could be shorthand for 'China' and 'Tiger' for India, etc). Six snakes means a time interval spanning six snake years. In the case of this prophecy that would mean 1977-2037 (both fire snake years) or to include the entire seventeenth sexagenary cycle that we're in now, 1977-2043.


The previous 'six snakes coiled' implies this will happen around or in the middle of ('khyil 'surrounded by) the middle of the seventeenth cycle of 60 years or rather, in the middle of six snake-years 1977-2037 inclusive. I.e., around 2007 or a couple of years later. ...
/g.yung pos ba gam ser chen 'dril/


'The Outcasts (candala=g.yung po) swarm around a great golden-domed palace (ba gam = pho drang)' meaning perhaps a temple, cathedral, mosque, executive mansion, Capitol, etc. ...

I read the above and I am left with an image of biblical-level, cataclysmic flooding, set to occur during the period ruled by a particular constellation, perhaps triggered by a meteor smashing into the ocean. A really, really big tsunami, maybe?

The above discussion on 2012 Tibetan prophecies was written in 2009. You can see extended Tibetan astrology for the year 2012 (i.e. 2139) here; an excerpt:

I feel there will be at least one extremely dramatic "world-altering" event that will influence us for many years to come. Travel and international relations will be in the forefront, whether conventionally, or as symbolized by increased use of the Internet to foster growth and change. Indeed, there will most definitely be "change," but not everyone will be happy. Conflicts of the "flare-up," or "brush fire" type are strongly indicated. Change will be rapid and unpredictable.

I can foresee issues with North Korea and Iran. I do not see how conflict in Uddiyana can be avoided. There will be violence associated with terrorism, and violence associated with repression. A military "show of force" is highly likely, and may extend to the nuclear realm.

Finance will be a constant theme throughout the year. There will likely be wide fluctuation, and high-profile bankruptcy. Markets will become volatile. You can expect China to make bold moves this year, as they begin to experience some of the challenges of their overheated economy. There will be incredible competition for natural resources and raw materials. Firms that recycle will see windfall profits, as they benefit from legislation. The environment will also make headlines several times during the year, particularly in the area of floods, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.

There will be incredible advances and inventions in science and technology, and the possibility of a medical breakthrough.

On the downside, this year can see challenges in the entertainment industry, and a sudden jump in the divorce rate.

The start date of Losar depends on your time zone. Some places will not begin celebrating until February 22.

Infographic: Eastern vs. Western Medicine

Mike Barrett
Activist Post

There is often a large barrier between those in favor of Eastern medicine and those in favor of Western medicine.

Methods of healing are drastically different, with Western medicine being much more ‘unnatural’ than Eastern.

Eastern philosophy uses whole-food formulas to nourish the body’s natural healing abilities, while Western philosophy isolates and forces therapeutic actions to ‘treat’ disease.

Eastern examination works with the elements earth, fire, wood, metal, and water to interpret the relationship between the physiology and pathology of the human body and the natural environment. Western medicine uses vital signs like height, weight, and body temperate, and general appearance for health examination.

Due to the harsh, ineffective, and dependency-driven aspects of Western medicine, Eastern medical philosophies are regaining popularity.

Pharmaceutical drugs are vastly overused, leading to detrimental health effects. These drugs are dished out by profit-driven health officials who simply would not profit if the world were to awaken to the plethora of free health-promoting substances.


An infographic comparing Eastern and Western practices illustrates how an Eastern practice like acupuncture can provide faster and safer treatments than pharmaceutical medications. A migraine can be treated with one acupuncture session, compared to Western medicine where you would be dependent on harmful pain medications. Similarly, 8-25 treatments of acupuncture can treat back/neck pain, while Western medicine would tackle the issue with more everlasting pain medication.

While Eastern practices are growing in popularity, Western medicine still blankets over the majority of the population. Even though Eastern medicine is still picking up, more and more people are deciding to cut out conventional medicine while turning to more natural treatments such as vitamins and foods like turmeric. In fact, there have been 0 deaths from vitamins over the past 27 years and over 3 million deaths related to prescription drug use.

This article first appeared at Natural Society, an excellent resource for health news and vaccine information.

Why is My Cannabis Getting More Expensive?

This is a question that most cannabis users will have asked themselves at some point here in the UK. Over the past 3-5 years cannabis has shot up in price from £15 eighths to a whopping £25 for eighths that have more than halved in average weight (from 3.5 grams to 2.0 grams) in parts of the UK today. From personal experience I have even paid up to £25 for an ‘Eighth’ that in fact weighed 1.4 grams, and from speaking to other cannabis users all across the UK I have concluded that deals like this seem to be happening quite a bit.

So why is this happening? What is making dealers squeeze even more money from our pockets for the most readily available illegal drug in the UK? The first and obvious factor is inflation. The cost of living is going up, and of course the knock-on effect means that the price of our cannabis is going up as well. Most things now cost more money, and the VAT increase from 17.5% to 20% has driven prices up even further. With increased living costs for people involved in cannabis supply, it would only be natural to raise cannabis prices to maintain profits.

It should also be noted that the price of cannabis is going up as the weights are going down, effectively making it many times more expensive than it once was at a time when Britain is in danger of another recession. Would it not be logical for the Government to use a new cannabis industry to ensure more economic stability for the UK?

The supply and demand factor is a massive part of this issue. Pre-2006, lots of industrial cannabis factories were springing up as the dangers were not as great because there was not a police focus on cannabis crackdowns. But after an increased police awareness and subsequently busts, the supply has gone down while the demand has remained stable/grown. Therefore the price of cannabis would go up as a result of this. If the amount of cannabis grown/imported overtook the demand, cannabis prices could drop, but this would not happen with a growing number of police raids in the UK. The Government are fully aware of this, and it is playing into their hands – they want cannabis to be a rip off in the hope that people will not consume as much as it. According to the government viewpoint, if the price goes up and quality goes down then people will use cannabis less. But in reality the number of cannabis users in the UK is not in decline.
I had some help from Derek Williams for the following point – Derek went into detail about the cost of production, and how it now is in the favour of organised criminals.

He stated:

“What you don’t talk about of course is the cost of production, which other than the risk of getting busted hasn’t gone up – indeed with new technology like LED lighting is due to drop greatly. So the other half of this is those people who do carry on growing are getting very rich. This means that criminal grow ops are maybe smaller, but much better protected. The gangs can afford to defend themselves – guns etc.

The high prices also attract a new form of grower, the small scale “contract” grower. Instead of big warehouse grows, criminals are now sub-contracting smaller scale grows to people, which when the police raid look like hobby growers. But of course these are not enthusiast grows, so no quality considerations, overuse of chemicals like OP pesticides etc. It also increases crime – shown in Liverpool now when the city’s gangs are stealing near ready grows and gun crime has increased greatly. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2011/07/21/liverpool-drug-gangs-move-in-on-cannabis-trade-special-echo-report-100252-29092230/

Tokers might be put off by the high prices – indeed it’s interesting to note the high prices haven’t caused a crime wave amongst users as a high price for heroin would do – but as soon as a supply becomes available again the users will return. So the police effort has to be ongoing, it can never be scaled back. But as the grow trade fragments, so it takes more and more police resources to bust smaller and smaller grows, so the commitment is not only open ended but also forever increasing. Add to that the fact that the police effort has the effect of increasing violent crime, gang wars etc, the cost of enforcement ramps up even more and we all suffer as a result – both cannabis users and non-users.

In the middle of all this are the hobby growers. People who grow cannabis for their own use, or maybe to share with some friends. These are people who take a pride in their product, have no connection with criminal gangs and are not in it for the money. These people are targeted in the same way as the criminals and indeed are a much softer target as they take no precautions in terms of defending their grow-ops. Of course, knocking out these easy to get hobby growers only pushed the trade even further toward the criminals.

Prohibitionists are increasingly making the point that if there was no demand, there would be no supply and this crime wave wouldn’t be happening. In a twisted sort of way they are, of course, right, but there is a demand and cannabis remains a substance which millions of people enjoy using. It is the attempt to prevent the laws of supply and demand working as they should which is causing this problem. The cannabis trade, if it were allowed to function as it should be able to, is not a problem for society, It only becomes a problem when the government and police drive a massively profitable trade into the arms of organised crime.”

There is also the greed factor. Dealers have clocked on to the fact that due to poor education on cannabis, many people do not know good quality or a good deal when they buy a bag of weed. They have hiked prices up over the past few years creating a domino effect that has caused the standard deal to drop from 3.5 gram eighths to 3.0 grams, then to 2.8, then 2.6 etc all the way down to 2.0 gram eighths for £20 – or sometimes £25 – throughout most of the UK.

Even moderate stoners will appreciate how little cannabis this is for what we are paying. Gone are the days when a tiny green sprinkle was all that was needed to get sky high. It is worth noting that the amount people smoke varies greatly, but a lot of people I know will smoke a gram in 4 or 5 spliffs, and the cost of this is enough to hurt the average bank balance.

Perhaps the most expensive cannabis I have bought cost me £25 for 1.4 grams of ‘high grade’ – I suffered this cost because of my love for cannabis, and it was nice to some smoke sativa strains for a change while I had this supply.

Of course I am speaking from a consumer’s perspective – as I am not a dealer I cannot rely on honesty when I ask dealers how much they get their weed for, as I am seen as a client and they would not want to damage business. I have been told £260 for an ounce before which works out at £10 a gram before profit – hard to believe. The standard I am hearing is £180 – £200 per ounce of standard weed, which could be wet or sprayed or both, depending on the batch. Unfortunately I do not know any local growers who I could buy directly from to ensure good quality and value.

Another factor contributing to the increase in cost of cannabis over the past few years is Gordon Brown’s decision to reclassify cannabis Class B effective from the start of 2009 (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_classification_in_the_United_Kingdom). When it had been downgraded in 2004 to a Class C drug penalties were reduced, and therefore cost decreased. People also began growing their own cannabis rather than importing it from abroad, which further lowered costs (and cut off international organised criminals from some of the UK supply chain). When cannabis was reclassified after pressure on Gordon Brown from campaigns by our nation’s tabloids the fear of increased penalties resulted in – you’ve guessed it – an increase in cannabis prices.

It is also worth noting that the campaigns by tabloids were based on false information (e.g. skunk being linked to mental health problems), creating confusion amongst the Great British Public – suddenly cannabis carried harsher sentences again, therefore the price went up and the tabloids won the battle to stop sensible drugs policy in its footsteps and send it back to fight another day.

The problem of contaminated cannabis is another factor, because the thought-process behind ‘spraying’ cannabis is to vastly increase its weight without regard for potential health risks for consumers. This is a major problem caused by cannabis prohibition that I cover in my article Meet The Sprayer. How it fits into this argument is that £10 for a gram of cannabis that has had its weight more than doubled with contaminants means that the consumer is actually getting a lot less than 1 gram of cannabis, the rest of the weight being made up by nasty contaminants, which carry serious health risks to cannabis smokers. When you do the maths, you can see the vast additional profits generated by the organised criminals along the contaminated cannabis supply resulting from spraying cannabis.

Because of prohibition, the price of cannabis is set by dealers in the UK who are out to line their own pockets, on most part with no regard for the cannabis consumers. Because cannabis must be bought via illegal means there is no regulation, no tax, no trading standards – the dealers can charge what they want, confident that they will keep their customers because they have a commodity. The same can be seen with alcohol prohibition in America last century – alcohol prices went through the roof, and America was flooded with contaminated alcohol which led to many health problems.

When I asked the cannabis community how much cannabis costs in their area, the general consensus was that people thought that prices were a rip off. I have posted some of the comments below.

I wrote:

“At the moment I am paying £10 a gram for my cannabis – how much does it cost in your area and do you think you are getting a good deal?”

“Around the same in Brum for the high grade, yet less than 4 years ago it was double that. Blatant price fixing by the higher powers! Best way forward is G.I.Y!” – Shaun

“£10 for .8 of a gram “ – Graham

“if its Chinese 20 a half Q apart from that it’s 10 a g for both home-grown and import. if it’s dry here and i need to travel the couple of miles to Edinburgh most peeps are getting raped for 20 bags that weigh 1.3 if your lucky :p” – Alistair

“Pound a point. Same as gold, unfortunately.” -Jay

“1.3 p/£10, 2.5+ p/£20. You can get a proper henry for £25 as well” – Jack

“?.8 of a gram £10 damp (bad),£140 oz dry (very good)” – Rhys

“I get .9 for a £10 and 1.5 for £20 I reckon it should go back to how it used to be £140 an oz” – Wayne

“1.6′s if im lucky and even then theres a 25% chance its sprayed” – Connor

“where i am its £20 per every 1.5g. Probably the worst prices in the country.” – Nusty

“€300/ounce €50/eighth (3.5g) doesn’t really vary much around here, occasionally some good stuff is available usually around €50 for 2g.” – Sandra

“We get between 190 and 230 here depending on the bud. Personally I’d never buy for more than 220. Doesn’t become worth it” – Timothy

“£10 a gram of green, £8 a gram of pollen here” – Kayla

“I get bags (dont call them 8ths) of green for 3 gs to 3.2 for £25” – Grant

“£20 for anything from 1.0 grams to 1.8, usually wet un-cured and full of tree trunks to knock me even more” – Padd

“At the moment its 1.8 for £20 . Ounces cost 200-240 ( haze 240) . Prices are crazy and its got to change” – Joseph

“I pay £75-£90 on the half of regs, it’s usually damp and I’ll lose about 1.5g drying it out. Anything from moderately stinky to high grade stinky is 10s on the g” – Joe

“It varies on dealer around here, my neighbour does 1.4/1.5 for £20 (£15 neighbours rate to me, lol) otherwise I can get 2.4 for £20 if I’m willing to walk 3 – 4 miles up the other side of the valley. Case of quantity or convenience, but most deals round here are a bit crap these days.” – Ainsley

So, the future – does it look bleak for cannabis? Will we end up in a country where cannabis prices become so great that a gram could cost the same as a gram of something harder? What problems would this cause? Worryingly, it is possible that more people could be tempted into using harder drugs if they get them from the same guy and they cost the same amount of money?

This is an issue that the Government need to address. Cannabis is proven to be many times safer than legal alternatives, but dangers of harder drugs can pose health risks. If the government regulated cannabis, this would effectively cut off the link to other drugs, much in the same way that alcohol is cut off from illegal substances altogether. It would also regulate the price of cannabis, and take it out of the cost of the criminals currently running the cannabis supply chain, not to mention generate vast amounts of money for the Government which would be raised in taxes.

So as prices continue to rise, I will not take my bud for granted, as chances are the price of cannabis will keep on rising until the UK adopts a regulated system. Recent developments in drugs laws mean softer sentences will come into effect for smaller quantities of drugs, which hopefully will slow cannabis inflation. But prices will continue to rise, as everything always does, and I fear that in ten years’ time when reading back on this article I will be astonished at how cheap cannabis was back in 2012.

Keep Toking,

Nuff Said

With Thanks to Derek Williams for additional points

Lucy Birbeck - Dow Jones - at the Acorn, Penzance

...At Last! - Abbott & Birbeck at the Acorn, Penzance 17th Feb 2012, with the Ascension Band and the Fabulous Angel Tongue...
...this is the set opener, Dow Jones by Lucy Birbeck, introduced by Vicky Abbott...
...thanx to bob for the lenswork...

NATIVE SUN - LEGACY

Uploaded by Globalfaction on 9 Feb 2012

DOWNLOAD & BUY "LEGACY" SONG NOW: http://nativesunofficial.bandcamp.com/track/legacy

Native Sun is a London based duo consisting of bilingual rapper Mohammed Yahya, born in Mozambique, South East Africa and singer-song writer Sarina Leah born in London with Caribbean roots.

This collaboration with GlobalFaction takes Native Sun to Ancient Earth spaces, remembering the many great musicians who laid the foundations for present generations.
DOWNLOAD & BUY "LEGACY" SONG NOW: http://nativesunofficial.bandcamp.com/track/legacy

Music Production by Henry Keen: http://soundspecies.co.uk/
Filmed by GlobalFaction: http://www.globalfaction.org
Dancer Nyarrai: www.maatmovements.com

Stay Connected with Native Sun:
http://nativesunofficial.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/nativesunmuzik
http://twitter.com/nativesunmuzik
http://www.reverbnation.com/nativesunmuzik
http://nativesunmuzik.tumblr.com


Mohammed Yahya
Mozambican Born Rapper / Poet / Workshop Facilitator
+44 (0)759 00 66 530
http://www.myspace.com/mohammedyahya
http://www.youtube.com/mohammedyahyatv
http://www.Twitter.com/MohammedYahyaMC
http://www.Facebook.com/MohammedYahya

Coke - I almost died (laughing!)

Uploaded by spiritualentertainer on 10 Feb 2012

This call made by Al is part of a new enterprise. Please subscribe to http://www.youtube.com/user/TheHolyMischief. It is work in progress. There are other cute films there. Let the owner of the channel know you want to offer something. Al calls Coca Cola Customer satisfaction about his problems with the drink. Big thanks to 'Al' for this. What a complete star. And thanks for the folks at Coke. I think we may have spotted them laughing a bit but they were ace. Its a funny old world.

BBC are Corporate-Paid Propagandists

by Tony Cartalucci

February 14, 2012 – It has been recently reported by the Independent, that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) “will today apologise to an estimated 74 million people around the world for a news fixing scandal, exposed by The Independent, in which it broadcast documentaries made by a London TV company that was earning millions of pounds from PR clients which it featured in its programming.”

While The Independent focuses on scandals revolving around the Malaysian government, members of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak’s regime, and corporations like Microsoft, the reek of propaganda wafting off from all that BBC involves itself with has been a case study for years.

Three overtly suspect projects BBC recently backed immediately come to mind, including “Thailand: Justice Under Fire” together with “Secret Pakistan,” and “The Lady,” regarding US and British-funded Myanmar proxy, Aung San Suu Kyi. These three “works” have been exposed as overt propaganda, peddling an agenda rather than anything resembling objective documentaries. BBC’s “Secret Pakistan,” for example, literally attempted to rewrite 10 years of history where Pakistan, rather than Al Qaeda or “Bin Laden” was retrospectively made responsible for the ongoing violence in Afghanistan and the death of Western troops.

And while The Independent offers up their handful of negligible admissions regarding Malaysia, Egypt, and Microsoft, exposing how special interests compromised BBC’s “integrity,” the special interests behind other BBC “documentaries” are easily identified, granted you do not watch them in suspended disbelief, accepting everything as truthful, and fully trusting in BBC’s obviously non-existent credibility.

BBC is not only guilty of making fraudulent, deceitful propaganda dressed up as “documentaries,” but their general “reporting” is also a breathtaking daily assault on truth, objectivity, and journalistic integrity. No where can this be seen better than in BBC’s coverage of the events in Egypt and Libya last year, and in particular illustrated in an excerpt from February 2011′s “Libya Conquered in the Dark: BBC’s Breathtaking Propagandizing:”

Unlike in Egypt, where US International Crisis Group trustee Mohamed ElBaradei was talking daily to international reporters on the ground, and AlJazeera provided 24 hour coverage, Libya is a virtual blackhole. The mainstream media is relaying hearsay from “Libyan” bloggers and protesters on the ground. The tell-tale quotation marks peppering reports coming out of BBC and AlJazeera and a litany of weasel words indicate that the “revolution” will be feed to the public in the most disingenuous and unsubstantiated manner possible.

Unfortunately, when all we have to depend on during a crisis is the honor of the corporate owned media, where BBC itself is a major corporate member of the globalist nexus Chatham House, nothing can be trusted and we are left in confusion and uncertainty. Far too many people, however, will still fall for the thin veneer of legitimacy the mainstream media’s slick graphics and well-dressed shills lend it.

BBC’s latest article regarding Sayf al-Islam’s address to the nation gives us an astounding example of the mainstream media forcing the scant facts coming out of Libya into a predetermined narrative to suit the global-combine’s interests. In his address to the Libyan nation, Sayf al-Islam accused opposition groups and outsiders of trying to transform Libya, that the foreign media was grossly exaggerating the government’s response to protesters, and compared the unrest to an Egypt-style Facebook revolution.

Corporate propagandist John Leyne of the globalist Chatham House’s BBC

While BBC concedes that “verifying information from Libya has been difficult,” within the text of the article they refer to the speech as a “rambling TV address.” In the side bar, we hear from BBC propagandist Jon Leyne, who covered the “bazillion-gagillion man march” in Egypt and told viewers it seemed as if “all of Egypt” had turned out in Tahrir Square. Best estimates of the crowd range from 50,000 to no more than 100,000 (0.1% of Egypt’s population.) Leyne says the following regarding Sayf al-Islam’s address, in an unprofessional bravado we should only have come to expect from the BBC:

“That was one of the strangest political speeches I think I’ve ever sat through. He was completely and utterly detached from the reality of what is going on in his country. To put it bluntly, most Libyans will just treat it as gibberish – it was completely meaningless to them. The idea that they’re somehow going to sit down and have a national dialogue with a government that’s brought in foreign mercenaries to shoot at them is laughable.”

What qualifies Leyne to speak on behalf of the Libyan people on a crisis his own network concedes is difficult to report on, thus “utterly detached” themselves, is beyond understanding, unless of course it is pure propaganda aimed at discrediting the address.

What the mainstream media and Sayf al-Islam seem to agree on is that Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi has been overrun by mobs who have seized military tanks and weapons. For BBC and AlJazeera to call the government’s response to arsonists, looters, vandals, and now dangerously and overtly armed mobs, a “massacre,” seems somewhat disingenuous and very similar to their coverage of the US-backed mobs that took to the streets in Bangkok in May, 2010.

While BBC’s recent outing as a corporate-paid propaganda operation may seem to many as a simple statement of the obvious, it will hopefully begin to undermine the unquestioned credibility many still seem to believe these large corporate-media outfits possess. It will also hopefully spur many to begin researching, discovering, and attempting to understand the world around them, themselves, without the corporate-paid propagandists guiding them along.

If Thomas Jefferson was correct when he stated, “an informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will,” one must wonder where the public will is currently reposited so long as the citizenry is “informed” by corporate-paid propagandists like the BBC.

_______

Tony Cartalucci is a regular contributor to Infowars Ireland. Read more of his articles here, or visit his website Land Destroyer Report.

A Day in the Life of a Cannabis Cafe Worker

BY SARAH CHALK

I guess we all have a good idea about what we would call our “ideal job” and I’m sure that some of you reading this would totally agree that working in a cannabis café would be pretty ideal. I mean, imagine being able to go to work every day, smoke some damn fine cannabis, meet some really interesting people, and be part of a great community? Well this is my story……….

Back in the spring of 2002, life was hectic for me. I was just a normal housewife, with a great hubby and four fantastic sons and my days were filled with the normal day to day things that any other housewife experienced. It was a Thursday morning, and I was browsing my local paper, when I came across an article. It was about this guy who had opened a head shop in the town centre. He was quoted as saying that he wanted to open a Dutch style cannabis café at the rear of the shop, but couldn’t do that because of the draconian laws surrounding cannabis in this country. I remember saying to Keith, my husband, what a great idea I thought it was, and so I decided to write a letter to the local paper to show my support for this man. To cut a long story short, my letter was printed and I got on with my life.

A good friend of ours, who has since passed away, came to visit a few weeks later, with some of the best herbal cannabis that I had ever smoked, and he suggested that I paid a visit to the new head shop in town. And so it was, a couple of weeks later, I met the man who was to change my life in a huge way. His name was Chris Baldwin and during our first conversation I discovered that he had been a candidate in the previous General Election for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance (now re-named CLEAR). Chris had such a vision – he wanted to see cannabis cafes on the streets of every town in the UK and I totally shared his vision. I had been a cannabis user for many years, and although I was a recreational user, I definitely could understand how cannabis could be used as a great alternative medicine.

The head shop, named Bongchuffa, was situated in Worthing, West Sussex. It was tucked away in a great road, with plenty of other businesses, just like you would find on any high street in any town. And it was just like any other head shop – shelves with bongs, pipes and smoking accessories, smoking papers etc. But that was where the similarity stopped. A door led from the shop front to a back room, and oh what a back room it was! It looked a bit like an artists studio – some incredibly talented artists were decorating the walls and ceiling. There were a few old tables and chairs around, the lighting was dim and some fine music was playing. And then there was a smell of fine cannabis… Chris offered me to join him and his friends for a smoke, so of course I accepted. It would have been rude not to! Chris told me that he had seen my letter in the local paper and was wondering when I would put in an appearance – to be honest I wished I had done it sooner….

We chatted for a while, and it became apparent to me that Chris was intending to open an illegal cannabis café in Worthing. Without thinking twice, I offered my help and support and left feeling a little wobbly to say the least. When I went home and told Keith, he was understandably a little cautious, but all the same he was very intrigued. During the next fortnight, I visited Bongchuffa on numerous occasions, making teas and coffees, meeting some great people and learning more and more about Chris’s vision. Things were progressing well in the “back room”. The walls were virtually filled with all different kinds of art, a wall had been built to separate the front shop from the back, and in the corner a lovely wooden dealer’s booth was being built. It truly did have the feel about it that many Dutch Coffeshops have. By this time my husband had also visited a few times, and plans were made to build a coffee bar with seating for around thirty people. It was also wheelchair accessible which would prove to be invaluable as time went on.

I’m not quite sure of the date that it happened, but one day, the coffee shop announced that it would be opening to the public, and adopted its name – Quantum Leaf. Opening hours were to be 11am – 6pm and none of us really knew what we were letting ourselves in for. Chris always said that he expected Quantum Leaf to be closed down on Day 1 but that wasn’t to be. During the early days, most people who entered through the door and walked down the short tunnel to Quantum Leaf simply could not believe their eyes. The first thing that met people was a dealer’s booth, complete with menu, which sometimes had as many as ten different types of weed, and up to five types of hash. Their deals were ten English pounds each, and depending on what variety you had, you would get a very fair and reasonable weight. A system was introduced whereby sales were restricted to four bags per day per customer, which is probably just as well, because we were always running out and having to send out for more supplies. The coffee bar was well stocked with teas, coffees, cold drinks, biscuits and snacks. It soon became apparent that people also wanted to purchase space cakes. We obliged by providing them with muffins priced at two English pounds, cookies priced at one English pound, and for special occasions, a box of handmade Cannachocs, priced at five English pounds.

My day usually started at around 9.30am when, on arrival with another lady, we would clean the premises and ensure that everything was ready for the 11am opening. The cannabis was kept in a safe house, and would arrive in fairly small amounts, just before opening time. There were a few volunteer dealers, who would usually work two or three hour stints in the dealer’s booth. It was a very enviable job! The coffee bar was similarly staffed, with staff earning two bags of weed or hash for each shift that they worked.

I should have mentioned previously, but alongside this coffee shop venture, Chris Baldwin and his friend and carer, Trevor Smith were also involved with a medical cannabis distribution service called THC (The Herb Connection) A lot of THC patients were local Worthing people and would often come in to Quantum Leaf to collect their medicine. I will never forget the first time that I met a young guy, only in his twenties, who had one of the worse cases of MS that I had ever seen. What was so great to watch was how his uncontrollable shaking stopped after just one or two pipes of high grade cannabis. Another lovely lady in an electric wheelchair, who had been struck with a crippling illness a few years earlier, would come in most days, stay for coffee and a chat, and at the same time medicate herself so that she was well and able to enjoy her days,

When 6pm came, it would be time to reflect on the day, and believe me, each day that passed there was more and more reflection to be done. Many of the local shop owners remarked upon how their business was booming, especially the food outlets and tobacconist, which to me indicated that there really was a need for cannabis cafes within our communities and society in general. Not one of our neighbouring shop owners ever complained about us being there.

The local newspaper put out an appeal for shopkeepers to donate to the Worthing Christmas Lights appeal, and they happily accepted our donation. A party for 30 children, mostly the kids of adults who visited Quantum Leaf, was held at a local soft ball park, Father Christmas visited the kids with a great present for each of them, and Quantum Leaf was opened especially for the parents to go and have coffee a smoke and relax for a while, safe in the knowledge that their children were happy and being cared for.

Of course, it was not all sunshine and light, and obviously the bubble had to burst at some time, but none of us knew when this would be. Local soap bar dealers heard about the place, and we received threatening phone calls saying that they were coming to rob us. This didn’t happen, but trust me, there were many, many people who wanted to be involved who had very few scruples or morals, but that’s another story.

Quantum Leaf finally closed its doors on December 25^th 2002, but not before it provided Christmas Lunch for many homeless people from the area. Those were a really busy six months or so for me, but ones that I will never forget. Would I do it again? You bet I would!

This article was written for Issue 9 of ISMOKE Magazine

#stim4prez

Uploaded by stimulator on 11 Feb 2012

http://submedia.tv/stimulator/2012/02/11/stim4prez
this week:

1. #stim4prez
2. The Egytian revolutions is not over
3. Brazil pigs attack the poor
4. Syrian resistance gets shelled
5. Shields up
6. Molotovs in Bahrain
7. Anonymous VS the pigs
8. Film the police
9. The original Occupy movement

QUANTUM LEVITATION (WIPEOUT HOVER CARS) THE COOLEST RACE EVER!!

Uploaded by danielofdoriaa on 12 Feb 2012

Controlled Quantum Levitation on a Wipe'Out Track!!
THE COOLEST RACE EVER!

*** See the making of the video here: http://youtu.be/J_B5u2lZGW8 ***

JAPAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Here is a short footage on our recent work on quantum levitation. We were inspired by the game Wipe'out to do our work. With this new technology, we hope to revolutionize the world of motor transport; Maybe in a near future we could assist to a real Wipe'out race.

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

Note: NO COPYRIGHT INTENDED in this video.
(C) Copyright! All rights reserved belong to Sony Entertainment and SCE Studio Liverpool.

Music Soundtrack Used :

Smart Systems by Mist
Seven Stitches by Noisia

Contact us : ryuutanaka.quantumproject@gmail.com

Oringinal uploader:- http://www.youtube.com/JISTQuantum

こ れはクォンタムレビテーションに関する我々の研究および実験を記録した短いモーンタージュである。　ラボの若手研究者諸氏は当該ゲー ム"Wipe'Out" により触発され、当研究に着手するにいたった。

彼らは、近い将来当研究の成果により、実物大の "Wipe'Out" レースが可能になるであろうと予想している。

GREECE BURNS AS THE BANKERS DEMAND THEIR POUND OF FLESH.

Today in Greece tens ofthousands, possible hundreds of thousands of its people have taken tothe streets, In Athens it is estimated that more than 50,000 peoplecrowded the streets around Syntagma Square where running battles withthe police continued well after dark. Several buildings were on fireas darkness engulfed the city. At the time of writing tear gas andMolotov cocktails are criss-crossing the streets. The Euro-Bank andthe first floor of the State's Accounts Office are ablaze. What I find moresignificant about this demonstration is that as there have beendemonstrations across the country and the islands, there has alsobeen many occupations by demonstrators the list of building is quiteimpressive;

Protesters and strikershave occupied the following buildings and have transformed them intoheadquarters for the evening rally:

Athens Law School

Ministry of Health in Athens

Cinema-Theatre Olympion in Thessaloniki

Building of the Regional government of WesternGreece in Patras

Building of the Regional Government of Ionianislands in Corfu

Building of the Regional Government of Crete inRethymnon

Building of the Regional Government of Thessaly inLarisa

Rethymno City Hall

Holargos City Hall

Regional Union of Imathia in Veroia.

“In order to save the banks from bankruptcy, they’ve thrown us into poverty and unemployment. They sold off our country and all that belongs to us. Switch off your TV, take to the streets, for victory!”

So while the expensive suits, without consultingthe people, sit in the parliament building trying to do a deal withthe devil, heaping more misery on the heads of the Greek people, thepeople have been on the streets telling them that deal or no dealthey will not accept any more deprivation to protect the wealth ofthe bankers.

We should all be out demonstrating in solidarity with the Greek people, what is happening to them is no less than the sacrifice of a people on the alter of bankers greed. Greece is being turned into a third world country and there is no guarantee that it will not come over here. Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Romania, and Hungary are all teetering on the brink, and when the chips are down the bankers will have no qualms about doing to the rest of Europe, what they are now doing to Greece.

It was also interesting watching the BBC sixo'clock news, and thinking of a previous post, true to form, the main item and the longest spot went to the death ofan American singer Whitney Houston, with Greece and what is happening there a verybrief second spot.

Since writing this I have learnt that there are several banks on fire across Athens. How far will the bankers push the rest of the people in Europe??

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