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Category Archives: David Icke
John Carpenter's They Live
Posted on April 29, 2012 by Hey!
I was watching John Carpenter's 1988 flick They Live and thinking, jeez, it's like this informed all David Icke's ideas about a reptilian master-race and subliminal messages. (David Icke being a new age conspiracy theorist whose mission is to "exposing the dreamworld that we believe to be real", for anyone who hasn't already enjoyed my perverse obsession with him.)
Then I found this interview with Icke… if you can get past the "moonstrel cycle" stuff. Or just skip to 6.15. Indeed, he gives Carpenter's 'theory' his full support.
Incidentally, the flick stars WWF wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper, as a drifter who delivers the immortal line: "I have come here to chew bubble-gum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubble-gum." That makes it worth hiring, doesn't it?
Posted in David Icke. Bookmark the permalink.
I had psychic surgery to remove my alien implant
I always come to see Mark when I visit this most mystical outreach of Australia's coastline. I'm a skeptic, sure, but Mark's my healer. He's my wild card; the aberration of science that I've described as being the real deal in the same way that racists will have their one black mate who's "all right". It makes no sense, but we'll happily let it through to the keeper.
Mark was the knife-edge on which my skepticism swayed. I've told so many fellow naysayers: "but there's this one guy…" I've accredited him with dispensing of my circular thoughts, a broken heart and my smoking habit. Or at least, I've thought of it as a dual effort between us – one with immediate results I couldn't have achieved on my own. Accordingly, I've lisped away to people: "I could feel energy pulsing down my body and streaming out of my feet."
I think. Couldn't I? I remember telling Mark I could.
Mark is placid as a panda bear; as warm as a roaring hearth. As benevolent and wise as Yoda. He's the sort of person you can make prolonged and meaningful eye contact with without wanting to stab out the jelly in your vitreous with pencils. Last time I saw him he diagnosed an energy block in my abdomen.
"That's funny," I piped up. "I've always had a huge phobia about being touched around there. I've had nightmares since I was a kid about being rigged up and prodded in my hips by disembodied fingers."
Mark suddenly saw arrows. "I'm being shown arrows," he said. "You were shot in a past life by a jealous lover." He gave a warm chuckle as I pictured my punctured ovaries. One healing later, I left: a big ball of loved-up expanded consciousness, floating off down the street to the sea.
Now, past lives are about as high on my 'Maybe Believe This' list as DNA ThetaHealing ™, but in the name of consistency, I decided to return to this subject with Mark on my next visit. I.e., would he stick to the arrows story?
"Last time I came here you said we should investigate an energy block," I said.
Mark gazed at my energy for a bit. "I often baulk at saying things like this, because most people don't react well," he said, at which point my hips tightened a few notches. "But it's an implant."
"An implant?"
"Yes. I'm seeing reptilian ETs – Zeta Reticulans. They used to rule the Earth and would quite frequently study humans by using implants, but these days we thankfully attract more benevolent beings of a higher frequency. The Zetas put an implant in you at birth to study your reproductive system. I can probably get it out."
I rolled with this. Mark's not alone in thinking reptilian aliens are all around us; it's a theory David Icke made popular, and I love hearing David Icke's theories. Love it.
"I'm not going to use the spirit guides in this operation, I'm going to use the friendly ETs," Mark said, as I removed my shoes.
I climbed aboard the table for 40 minutes. I usually love this bit, but I wasn't feeling it as much this time, due to the inconvenient truth of Mark talking about aliens. I was mourning the Mark gone by; the one who told me not to intellectualise spirituality, the one who said he had no interest in studying things like chakras and what have you.
I tried though. It could be true, was my mantra. You don't know for sure; you only know your version of reality. And besides, it's worth the $90 for a good blog post.
I saw my individual cells, golden, spinning, shimmering and spitting like Coke bubbles. I felt myself opened up flat as a pancake on the table – although Mark later told me the operation was multidimensional.
"I've never seen one as big as this before," he said when he was done, talking down at me as I lay on the table with my arms behind my head. "It was like the Tardis. There was a whole universe inside."
"Really?" I said, unable to not be impressed.
"But then there's a whole universe inside every cell," Mark pointed out.
"A universe in my pelvic bowl," I marvel, and we chortle.
"The Zeta aliens actually came in at the beginning," he said. "It got a bit nasty, but they were asked to leave. Could you feel it being removed from your brain? There were strands leading all the way up your spine, meshed into every cell, and up into your brain. It was a very tricky procedure – I only facilitated it."
Mark didn't seem too rattled after facilitating major surgery on the biggest alien implant he'd ever seen. He explained that I'd attracted bad sexual experiences to myself because of the implant. "Your critical mind will explain this away over the next few days," he continued, "but you know it was special. There was a lot of love in the room. Don't forget this experience you've had."
"So," I offered hopefully, as I swung my legs off the table. "Do you see this as a visualisation technique to hypnotise me into freeing myself from some emotional blockage?"
There came a pause.
"Or are you describing things in real terms?"
"In real terms," he said. His eyes shone softly, as though he were just giving me a lovely recipe for parsnip soup.
As I walked out, something in me pouted. I love the thought of two shimmering entities walking down the high street with me; why can't I just go with it? I greatly enjoyed, as a child, believing the spirit of God was channeled through me and that I could bless people just by doing an internal yawn; even if it constantly irritated the family. Where's the harm?
But Mark had pushed me past my limit of making allowances and moving the goal posts. I hate it when men do that. And so, with reluctance, I write up my findings.
– But Mark will see this and he's a lovely guy.
– He WON'T see this – he's not psychic!
In conclusion, in conclusion… I've come to the conclusion that I'm quite good at lying on a table and turning it on. Getting the love flowing. Could it be I already found the greatest love of all, inside of me? Possibly. I'll report back.
Posted in Conversations, David Icke, Energy, Healing, Higher Power, New Age conspiracy, Paranormal, Past lives, Spirit guides, Still extremely dubious, Theta healing, visualisation. Bookmark the permalink.
Blubbing in a towelly nook
Posted on March 30, 2012 by Hey!
'Pranic healing and massage' may sound as though it involves a forefinger and the perineum, but in actual fact it's about removing energy blockages in the whole body and resolving deep-rooted emotional issues.
Regular readers will be aware of my pathological fear of New Age men, but Greg (name changed!) comes recommended by my two work chums, Sheridan and Gemima (real names!), who always come into the office next day looking flushed and fanning themselves. I can see why when Greg opens the door; he's like Hollywood's idea of a New Age man, if the New Age man was in Oceans 11.
We have a bit of a chat about what to expect. When a practitioner says: "You might find you cry, but that's okay," which they invariably do, I take it with a pinch of salt. It always reminds me of my first boyfriend waggling two fingers at me and announcing his unfailing ability to satisfy a woman thusly. If you don't cry or orgasm gratefully, are you the failure?
I hop up onto a massage table in Greg's house in just my undies and lie on my back under a towel. He walks me through some guided meditation that's by the book, but still, I feel a bit like I'm being hypnotised. Thoughts start getting surreal and I keep morphing into Sheridan and then Gemima, who've both lain in this very spot. Maybe their psychic shadows are imprinting on me. It's really off-putting. ("Maybe something awful happened on that table and you were disassociating," James at the train station coffee cart says later.)
The pranic healing itself is done hands-off, other than occasional light touches on my head, but when Greg lubes up to segue into the massage, I freak out a bit. When a woman's massaged my head or hands in a spa treatment I've enjoyed it, but having a man do something so intimate without getting me shitfaced first is incredibly confronting. And this goes on for three hours. Have you any idea how massaged you can become in three hours? There are 206 bones in the human body, and Greg swizzle-sticks them all, with no earlobe or toe left unturned. In fact, I can confidently say he now knows my body more intimately than any man I've ever slept with, with the exception of my sexual organs – although I'm sure he gave them a sly massage through some meridian point. Sometimes his hands tremble with the force of whatever's coming out of them. I amuse myself by trying to zap him back with some piping hot lifeforce of my own.
My critical mind keeps piping up to mock my attempts at being pure consciousness. What if he's rubbing himself right in front of your face? … Shut up, he can hear you, you know … He must be so bored, you should apologise and leave… This is rubbish; nothing's happening … What's that? Is that his leg?
Then, of course, something strange happens. It's when Greg works from my lower back, up my arms and to my hands that I start crying, facedown in that towelly nook. I've barely got time for a We're not really going to do this, are we? when I feel a bottomless well of grief and loneliness; not just the pinpricks of self-pity that can be willed out when one is laid horizontal and feeling a bit vulnerable, but grief bleeding out of my eyeballs and filling my mouth. Quietly. My fingers curl softly around his arm. He's gentle, respectful and non-intrusive. I want him to stop touching me and not leave me at the same time.
Through the hole in the table I discover there's a flower to look at, which my tears are plopping into. There's some kind of card with writing on it as well, but my eyes are too blurry. Thankfully, when Greg moves onto my legs the feeling goes and I'm lulled into a vegetative state.
Afterwards, after I've got dressed, Greg pulls out a chart and shows me where the energy blockages were. He doesn't need to tell me; I could feel which bits were stiff as a board and resisting arrest. But he tells me what that's likely to mean, depending on which meridian lines and chakras are affected. He correctly identifies what memories came up for me, and reports on images he saw, which I was seeing, too.
The more time that goes by as I journey home and go about my business the next day, the more I'm able to rationalise the experience as coincidence, general knowledge and the law of probability… but it should be noted that at the time, I was buying it. Or if not entirely buying it, definitely putting it on lay-by. And as Greg says, "Our critical mind doesn't want us freeing ourselves of the traps we've made."
As a side note:
Greg gives an explanation of how we recreate our past experiences over and over as our lives spiral through time. Our DNA's a spiral, he says, and so is the universe. The planets rotate around the sun, but beyond that the universe is spiraling, and so history keeps on repeating itself until we can gain some perspective by ascending up the six spheres of consciousness. It's a theory favoured by David Icke.
Also, says Greg, our DNA carries the imprints of our parents, grandparents and ancestors, whose experiences become our own. It's an idea I first heard from strange Theta-Healer and DNA restrander Maria. It's not dissimilar to the idea that DNA replicates at a distance, which has been posited by Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier (argh! Nobel Prize science and pseudoscience collide. Now I feel even more wobbly), recently backed up by Professor Jeff Reimer at the University of Sydney. Psychic slayer James Randi disagrees with the idea of DNA teleportation, needless to say, drawing comparisons with homeopaths' claims that water has memory.
Posted in Chakras, David Icke, Energy, Healing, Theta healing, Touchy feely. Bookmark the permalink.
David Icke suspects wife to be a shapeshifting lizard
Posted on January 8, 2012 by Hey!
The Daily Mail gets the scoop...
Posted in David Icke, New Age conspiracy. Bookmark the permalink.
Homeopaths threaten journalist with bodily harm (diluted by a squillion)
Ben Goldacre.
Ben Goldacre is the Lord Flashheart of science journalism, lancing the boil of pseudoscience and fashioning meaningless hyperbole into a frilly bonnet.
As a bona fide doctor he's got a bone to pick with anyone passing themselves off as having a medical background in their effort to hawk holistic wares and sell the spiel to lazy journalists. His most bloody battle is with homeopaths (followed closely by 'Doctor' Gillian McKeith). Homeopaths have, in fact, threatened him with bodily harm; presumably at only one part to a squillion.
Known for his exposé column in The Guardian, his website and a book, Bad Science, he uses terms like "bollocks du jour" and concocts ways for you to try your own experiments at home to see if various holistic health breakthroughs really work. (No.)
Your average 30C homeopathic preparation, he points out, is a dilution of (according to the Society of Homeopaths) "one part per million million million million million million million million million million". Homeopaths claim (as do David Icke and Masaru Emoto) that this dilution won't affect treatment, as water has memory and will have taken and retained an impression of the original molecules.
"If water has a memory," brays Goldacre, "then by now all water must surely be a health-giving homeopathic dilution of all the molecules in the world. Water has been sloshing around the globe for a very long time, and the water in my very body as I sit typing away in London has already been through plenty of other people's bodies before mine. Maybe some of the water molecules sitting in my fingers as I type this sentence are currently in your eyeball.
"How does a water molecule know to forget every other molecule it's seen before? How does it know to treat my bruise with its memory of arnica, rather than a memory of Isaac Asimov's faeces?
"I wrote this in the newspaper once and a homeopath complained to the Press Complaints Commission. It's not about the dilution, he said: it's the 'succussion'. You have to bang a flask of water briskly ten times on a leather and horsehair surface, and that's what makes the water remember a molecule. Because I did not mention this, he explained, I had deliberately made homeopaths sound stupid."
My question: Why don't homeopaths just up the ratio of herb to brandy and dispel the 'there's nothing in it' argument? Or is it the brandy alone that gives you that warm glow inside?
Posted in Books, David Icke, Healing, Homeopathy, Pseudoscience. Bookmark the permalink.
Does speaking kindly to water just before it freezes create beautiful patterns in its molecules?
Posted on December 1, 2011 by Hey!
It was David Icke who put me on to Masaru Emoto, which should be your indicator of whether to read on or not. For the past 12 years, the Japanese entrepreneur has been insisting that human consciousness can affect the molecular structure of water. Positive thoughts, songs, prayers or nice words taped to a water canister, he says, create beautiful patterns in the water crystals that can be examined with microscopic photography when frozen. Mean words create crazy, irregular shapes.
Nice crystals had been played Beethoven. Vicious blobs had received heavy metal.
One Emoto experiment involved 2000 volunteers in Tokyo vibing positive intent at bottles of water thousands of miles away in a room in California. The water in the vibed bottles, Emoto says, had increased aesthetic appeal to bottles of unvibed water in a neighbouring room. Boy, I wish I could have taken part in that experiment. Just as intrigued as me is psychic slayer James Randi, who has offered Emoto his customary million bucks to prove his theory under more controlled circumstances.
But this projecting of intent is a common theme in New Age circles. I can think of examples in which I'd agree it works. Ever had a shit massage? One where the technique is all there, but the care is lacking? Compare that to a massage by a spiritually minded practitioner, who focuses healing through their hands. And if you've ever made love, as I have, you will be familiar with the effect that has on every cell in your body. If you're doing it properly.
If you subscribe to Emoto's theories, positive intent affects all the molecules around us. This is good to know, as regular readers will remember I have been challenged to tune into the electrical frequencies of three people in different moods, as chosen by my skepto cohort Esther. This is one instance where my skepticism has taken a slide (I'm predicting further slides, just to pre-warn you). Being a sensitive – some may say over-sensitive – type, I'm confident I'll be able to read their moods by the vibes in the room. Esther reckons not. Dr Emoto would be on my side, as would the Mayans, who thought everything in the universe was made up of energy vibrating at different frequencies. Still, why should we listen to ancient civilisations?
Oh, incidentally, if you'd like to drink some sacred geometry, you can make your own poor man's Divine Energy Activation Water, like these healers in Texas. And THEN, you can send a sample to Emoto, who'll test it for lovely patterns for just 55,000 yen.
Further reading: http://is-masaru-emoto-for-real.com/
Do it yourself.
Posted in David Icke, Pseudoscience, Still extremely dubious. Bookmark the permalink.
DAVID ICKE Vs. ECKHART TOLLE: WHOSE AWAKENING WAS BETTER?
Posted on November 26, 2011 by Hey!
Puzzlingly, Oprah has never embraced Icke.
I've been reading Eckhart Tolle's description of his awakening in The Power of Now, and it's strikingly close to David Icke's, minus the mountain accoutrements.
TOLLE (aged 29)
"I cannot live with myself any longer." This was the thought that kept repeating itself in my mind. Then suddenly I became aware of what a peculiar thought it was. "Am I one or two?" If I cannot live with myself, there must be two of me: the 'I' and the 'self' that 'I' cannot live with." "Maybe," I thought, "only one of them is real."
I was so stunned by this strange realisation that my mind stopped. I was fully conscious, but there were no more thoughts. Then I felt drawn into what seemed like a vortex of energy. It was a slow movement at first and then accelerated. I was gripped by an intense fear, and my body started to shake. I heard the words "resist nothing", as if spoken inside my chest. I could feel myself being sucked into a void. It was as if the void was inside myself rather than outside. Suddenly, there was no more fear, and I let myself fall into that void. I have no recollection of what happened after that.
ICKE (aged 39)
There were magnets pulling my feet to the ground, and then I felt a drill going in the top of my head and through my body, through my feet, into the ground. And then another one coming the other way. And then my arms go out at 45 degrees, for the best part of an hour. This energy coming through me. My body started to shake with it, and I had two very powerful thought-forms pass through my head.
The first one said: "They'll be talking about this 100 years from now." The other one was: "It will be over when you feel the rain." This energy just kept coming through me. And I kept going in and out of, if you like, awareness, consciousness, like driving a car and you go: Crikey. Where did the last two miles go?
One of these times when I came back to kind of awareness, I noticed that over the distant mountains there was a light grey mist. It got darker and darker very quickly, pouring rain on the distant mountains.
I watched this storm come out of the mountains. The cloud was a straight line. It was like drawing the curtains across the sky. This thing's coming towards me, and as it got closer, the sun's gone. It's been covered. All the clouds are billowing and I'm seeing faces in the clouds. It didn't make sense to me, but I saw faces in the clouds.
And then it's a wall of rain. I'm watching it coming towards me. By this time I'm hanging on, you know, with this energy coming through me. Eventually it hits me – torrential rain – and everything stopped. That's when I staggered forward and my shoulders were agony and all the rest of it.
Winner: Icke.
Posted in David Icke, Eckhart Tolle. Bookmark the permalink.
Vibe me and help me get James Randi's loot
Like the great prophet David Icke says, we all emit vibrations and, similarly, we can tune into the vibrations of everything else – be it the Universe, another person, or that sandwich.
When I told my skepto mate Esther that I reckoned I could identify someone's mood just by their vibes, she leapt onto it like a bloody terrier on a stick – and now she won't let go.
"Oh really?" she uttered, in her broad Northern accent, already designed to sound 80 per cent more scathing than the Southern accent. "So you think you could tell someone's emotion without looking at them? Just by the vibrations in the room?"
"Of course," I said. "You can feel the energy worrying the air."
"No, you can't."
We had a bit of a starey stand-off.
"But surely you tell if someone fancies you by the tension without anything being said?" I persisted, bringing it back to layman's territory.
"Yes, but that's my hormones, my blood pressure rising," she said. "You, on the other hand, think you can identify a complete stranger as being sad, happy or angry without any visual cues."
"So if I were to present three people with different moods to you, in a small enclosed room with a couple of cameras, while you were blindfolded, you would be able to correctly read their vibes?"
"They'd have to be fixed cameras. If you have camera operators in there you'll throw me off the scent."
"All right, then."
And thus, what began as a minor knocking of horns over breakfast has turned into a bit of a worry, as Esther plots to utilise the resources of her TV production company to prove my theory to be ailing. She's even recruiting a skeptics society to set up the ideal scientific scenario.
Anyway, I've decided this is doable, but I need to practise. You can't tell me that, say, dogs can't pick up on a mood. Look at Lassie. And just as dogs go spastic when a storm's approaching, so do I. It's all about electrical frequencies, says Sir Icke.
So next time you're feeling something real bad, come and find me and focus that feeling at me. If I manage to identify it, I'll split the James Randi loot with you – he's the psychic investigator who's offering a million bucks to anyone who can demonstrate psychic powers under controlled circumstances. Strictly speaking I'm merely tuning into molecular vibrations, but we can probably get away with calling it psychic. Plenty of others do.
Tune in soon for the experiment proper.
I like David Icke
Posted on November 2, 2011 by Hey!
"I can tell you how the World Trade Centre came down. I served in the Special Armed Forces, the Secret Service, I know all the world bankers. I know the cure to breast cancer. I could become a very wealthy man."
The rant's coming thick and fast, low and sexual, delivered with a prowling gait. It's surprisingly succinct and coherent, with a bitter little twist.
No, it's not David Icke, it's a bloke on the 86 tram. Pacing up and down with straggly hair falling around his face like Jesus. Or Frank from Shameless. Once he's jumped off, everybody breathes a sigh of relief – so presumably they're not en route to the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre like me.
Today Icke's talking for nine hours on his The Lion Sleeps No More tour, brought out by a company called Positive Path. You know David Icke – the Pommy goalkeeper-turned-Green-Party-pollie-turned-New-Age-conspiracy-theorist. The one with the lizards. The giant, blood-sucking lizards that are running our governments, our media and our minds. Their number include George Bush, the Queen and Willie Nelson. Yes? Now?
I was expecting something slick and unnerving. like Tom Cruise in Magnolia. Instead I've got a pot-bellied, slightly peeved, nutty professor – albeit one with crazy eyes. Icke's self-deprecating humour (in the sense that he's decided to laugh at himself before you get a chance to) covers all his humiliations: his cruel dressing down on British talk show Wogan (YouTube it), his "turquoise period" (during which he moved his clairvoyant mistress into the family home, called himself the "son of the godhead" and would only wear turquoise in an effort to attract Universal positivity), his dabblings with psychoactive plants (could he be seeing the same giant lizards Hunter S Thompson saw?), and Richard Dawkins' persistent poking fun at him. In fact, his motto is "Still crazy after all these years". You can even get the T-shirt.
Icke in his turquoise phase on Wogan.
As the story goes, Icke lost his mind back in 1990, when a psychic told him he'd say things that would change the world as we knew it. He found himself called to Peru, where he had an awakening atop a mountain, so powerful that he found himself drilled into the ground in a Christ-like pose, with the elements rushing in to baptise him. Ever since, he's been refining and refining his theory: that the human race is neck-deep in a triple conspiracy to keep us dumb, while giant reptilians from the star system Alpha Draconis manipulate our reality.
As allegories for modern society, some scholars point out, Icke's theories are brilliant. But, the same scholars concede, he's probably not talking allegories.
Or is he?
The first third of today's proceedings, anyway, fucks us gently.
In a seamless flow of rhetoric, Icke pulls apart religion, the monarchy, the CIA, mindless television, the Lord Mayor's reaction to Occupy in Melbourne and blind adhesion to a rat race existence, overseen by sinister, shadowy overlords. Icke has logical explanations for UFOs, astrology, palmistry, crystal therapy, chakras, numerology and all the New Agery I'm highly dubious about, but explains so fast I have no time to keep filtering back through his claims and cross-referencing. Still, learning physics at school also required a massive suspension of disbelief that I don't even remember having to hoist. The 'big bang theory'. Really? Icke laughs in the face of it.
Pre-head explosion.
Moving on, Icke paces the stage restlessly and talks of us using our senses to decode vibrations and electromagnetic energy, one minute painting us as computers living in a virtual reality not of our own making (cue plentiful references to The Matrix and examples of how 3D holographic images are increasingly used in the media – implying we can't be sure of what's real), the next as slaves to the left side of our brains (New Agers employ the right). "Don't trust your thoughts; you are not your thoughts," he's saying; shouting, actually. But whereas that's a mantra of modern-day psychologists and mindfulness practitioners, Icke means our thoughts are literally being inserted into our heads – by THEM.
As a slow drip feed of information, it all seems perfectly reasonable, whereas if he'd leapt from "while you're watching Deal Or No Deal things are happening without your consent" to "we are all holograms projected from the edge of space" in one fell swoop, well, I'd have laughed.
So this is how mind control – the very type he warns us of – works: careful attrition of what you think you're sure of. No wonder some extra-conspiratorial conspiracy theorists reckon Icke's a double agent, a right-wing rube – he's got the tactics down pat.
Three hours in, we broke for lunch and I kept on walking. I felt like I was betraying Icke – and I'll never know for sure who THEY were – but sitting still for longer than this for any reason makes my head explode, Scanners-style.
And while he may approve of that actuality, I don't think he'd want me for one of his lions.
Quack-egories
Quack-egories Select Category Acupuncture/acupressure Air punch! Angels Astrology Books Chakras Consciousness Conversations Critical mind Dancing David Icke Drinking Eckhart Tolle EMDR Energy Fortune telling Geomancy Gong bath Gurus Gut instinct Healing Higher Power Homeopathy Howling Hypnotism Law of attraction Ley lines Mentalist Mother Nature New Age conspiracy Oprah Paranormal Past lives Placebo effect Pseudoscience Second brain Shamanism Spirit guides Still extremely dubious Theta healing Touchy feely Uncategorized Unconscious visualisation Yoga
Mentalist Keith Barry on new age cons
Bob Proctor: sensible uncle vs. sensationalist salesman
Did John Butler 12-step me?*
Letting go (a bit) at a 5Rhythms orgy of ecstasy
A lady who is a conductor for Galactic Councils
A skeptic of skeptics!
Believing is seeing!
Genetic Cuckoo
Guruphiliac
New Religious Movements cult forum
Prof Richard Wiseman
Skeptic Friends
That bloke from The Corrs
The Quackometer
The Skeptic's Dictionary


On Wednesday April 11th, Dr David Erdos will deliver a talk titled "Going Global? The General Data Protection Regulation and Transborder Data Flow in an Interconnected World" at the University of Hong Kong. This is part of a symposium on Privacy, Data Protection and Data-Sharing in Biomedical Research organized by HKU's Centre for Medical Ethics and Law.
The Snowdon revelations catapulted restrictions on the flow of personal data overseas into the very centre of the data protection debate and the General Data Protection Regulations sets out a much tougher regulatory approach here than was previously the norm in many EU Member States (including the UK). Going forward, transfers to a new controller or processor based overseas will only be legitimate if certain strict conditions are met, such as a European Commission decision that the jurisdiction in question provides "adequate"/"essentially equivalent" protection or the appropriate use of standard contractual clauses. It is nevertheless important to keep in mind that these rules are not ends in themselves but rather meant to be instrumental means to securing a high, yet also contextual, level of data protection. In a ubiquitously connected world, this may necessitate some rethinking of what we mean by a "transfer" of personal data. It will also require active work by data protection authorities to help craft solutions which safeguard data subjects whilst also enabling other positive goals to be fulfilled including satisfying "the legitimate expectations of society for an increase of knowledge" (GDPR, recital 113).


The item Doctor Who, The android invasion, BBC ; written by Terry Nation ; produced by Philip Hinchcliffe ; directed by Barry Letts, (videorecording) represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Hamilton Public Library.
The Doctor and Sarah Jane feel they are nearly home when the Tardis brings them to a sleepy English village, but soon even the local ale arouses suspicion. Doctor decides to contact UNIT. But their UNIT friends are also dangerously changed. Who is Senior Defense Astronaut, Guy Crayford, and why is he in charge of UNIT? Who are his true masters, the Kraals, and what insidious plans are they concocting behind the scenes?


Recent developments in the country's financial markets have certainly been alarming.
In itself that is neither unusual nor dangerous. But Turkey's deficit is quite large at 5.5% of national income, or GDP, last year.
There are two features of Turkey's foreign debt that also increase its vulnerability.
First, it has a high level of debt due for repayment in the near future - loans that have to be repaid and the money borrowed anew. To use the language of the financial markets, the debt has to be refinanced. Credit rating agency Fitch estimates that Turkey's total financing needs this year will be almost $230bn.
Second, many Turkish companies have borrowed in foreign currency. Those loans become more expensive to repay if the value of the national currency declines - which it has.
The currency weakness also aggravates Turkey's persistent inflation problem. The weaker lira makes imports more expensive.
Financial market investors are also very uneasy about President Erdogan's views on economic policy and the pressure he is seen as exerting on the country's central bank.
There is an obvious policy option open to a central bank that wants to bear down on inflation - raising interest rates.
That can curb inflation in two ways. It can weaken demand at home, and by increasing financial returns in Turkey encourage investors to buy lira - which strengthens the currency and reduces the cost of imports.
Turkey's central bank has taken several such moves, but without any lasting impact on the problem.
What bothers the markets is the president's well known - and most economists would say, ill-informed - opposition to higher rates. He has described himself as the enemy of interest rates.
Confidence has been further undermined by Turkey's strained relations with the United States.
Turkey has detained an American evangelical pastor and there are differences over the approach to Syria. In addition, the US is reviewing Turkey's eligibility for a programme that gives many exports from developing countries duty-free access to the US market.
In some respects the recent performance of the Turkish economy looks reasonable. It has grown every year this century apart from 2001 (the country's last economic crisis when it received an IMF bailout) and 2009 (in the aftermath of the global financial crisis). In some years growth has been very strong.
Unemployment is on the high side - the most recent figure is 9.9% - but it has been relatively stable.
One important difference compared with the country's crisis at the beginning of the century is that there is now no exchange rate target, unlike in 2001.
That said, credit rating agency Moody's says that economic growth has been boosted to unsustainable levels by spending and tax policies. Policies for long-term growth have been sidelined, the agency says, given the focus on election cycles.


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Utah: Proponents Of 2018 Medical Cannabis Ballot Measure Achieve Signature Milestone
Proponents of a proposed 2018 medicalization initiative have gathered an estimated 160,000 signatures and appear poised to place the measure on the November ballot.
Last week, a representative from the Lt. Governor's Office said that officials have already validated 117,000 signatures from registered voters — more than than the 113,000 necessary to qualify for the state ballot. Proponents of the measure, the Utah Patients Coalition, still have approximately two more weeks to collect additional signatures.
The Utah Medical Cannabis Act permits qualified patients to obtain either herbal cannabis or cannabis-infused products from a limited number state-licensed dispensaries.
In recent days, both the Utah Medical Association and Republican Gov. Gary Herbert have publicly opined against the measure. Nonetheless, public support in favor of the initiative remains strong, with 77 percent of Utahns either "strongly" or "somewhat" endorsing the plan, according to a March UtahPolicy.com poll.
In 2014, Utah became the first non-medical cannabis state to explicitly permit qualified patients to possess CBD-infused products. However, that law provided no legal in-state supply source or distribution for the products. This legislative session, lawmakers approved separate legislation permitting the Department of Agriculture and Food to contract with a third party to cultivate cannabis for the purpose of manufacturing marijuana-infused oils and other related products, but only for those patients who are terminally ill.
Utah is one of at least four states where voters are anticipated to decide later this year on marijuana-related ballot proposals. Oklahoma voters will decide on June 26 whether or not to approve State Question 788 — a broad-based initiative that permits physicians to recommend medical cannabis to patients at their sole discretion. NORML endorsed State Question 788 in January. In Michigan, proponents of the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act have turned in more than 360,000 signatures in an effort to qualify the measure for the November 2018 ballot. State officials must certify a total of 252,523 valid signatures from registered voters. According to a March 2018 EPIC-MRA poll, and commissioned by Michigan NORML, 61 percent of voters say that they would vote 'yes' on the measure "if the election were held today." In Missouri, backers of a voter initiated effort to legalize and regulate the therapeutic use and distribution of cannabis statewide have surpassed well over 200,000 signatures. Advocates must collect a total of 160,000 qualified signatures in six of Missouri's eight congressional districts by May 6, 2018 in order to qualify the measure for the 2018 electoral ballot.
Posted in ACTIVISMTagged ballot measure, initiative, Medical, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, Utah
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Recently at my local pharmacy in Texas I saw CBD products being sold, specifically "Innovative CBD." I bought the Natural Salve but concentrations of CBD are so low I suspect mislabeling. They claim to import their hemp from Spain.
I thought selling "hemp oil" was legal under federal law but "CBD oil" was not? The pharmacists I talked to were interested in feedback and wrote down my link to the Laws tab on this website.
What should I tell them besides "The DEA's lawyers are too busy getting hired by Big Pharma to sue themselves"?
[Julian: For decades so-called hemp oil products referred oils derived from non-germinating hemp seeds. These products are high in Omega 3s and EFAs, much like flax seed oil. These products are legal. By contrast, so-called CBD oil or hemp-derived oils today typically refer to products that either contain or allegedly contain active cannabinoids, such as CBD. As such, the DEA, Congress, and FDA interpret them as containing a federally controlled substance and thus, they are illicit federally. Some manufacturers have challenged this interpretation explicitly in instances where these products are derived from legal US hemp crops that are in compliance with the Farm Act, and their arguments were recently heard before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. But no decision has yet to be rendered.]
Thank you, Paul. Your answer was exactly I as expected… leaving more questions than answers 🙂
Another exciting election to look forward to this year. I have big hopes for all of these, and we really need Michigan to plant another seed in the middle of the country, Ohio should follow suit.
I'm really impressed by whats happening in Utah. Voter initiative in the lands of Orin Hatch and Mitt Romney?
And all these CBD companies may be mislabeling and deceptive, but it really smacks of corporate hubris. It's like pharma companies are saying, "I just hired the DEA's best lawyers, so we're just gonna sell whatever we want."
The irony is no matter what patented synthetics are sold, people want whole plant cannabis. And thats a boldly growing consumer demand that will always be more powerful than the synthetic Pharmacites trying to slap a weed leaf on some fake synthetics.
democracy could even triumph, despite resistance from the lapdogs, unelected misguided officials,
and corrupting influences of an untaxed muliti billion $ prohibition black market..
[calif 2017 black market worth; $13.5 billion..]
imagine what you could buy with the untaxed black market billions from the entire usa..
perhaps, even those elected to represent the people, the majority of whom support
cannabis law reforms..
and of course the odd unelected attack dog..
Mark Mitcham says:
One simple way to participate is to collect signatures. I only collected a drop in the bucket's worth, when I did it, and it was nothing to brag about. I was not paid; I was not aggressive. But those people who did sign did so enthusiastically, and were grateful for the chance.
It was an honor to give a voice to those citizens, and I was empowered, in return.
Home>ACTIVISM>Utah: Proponents Of 2018 Medical Cannabis Ballot Measure Achieve Signature Milestone

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The bootcamp is open to graduate and doctoral students as well as more experienced researchers who have some basic knowledge of statistics and experience using R.
Before the course, participants are required to familiarise themselves with the first four chapters of Stefan Th. Gries's coursebook Statistics for Linguistics with R. A Practical Introduction (2nd revised edition, 2013, Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton). Please note that you will be asked to confirm your acceptance of this requirement when completing the registration form. The companion website for the book is available here.
The classes will be held in a computer lab, and desktop computers with R and RStudio installed will be available for all participants. Attendees who would like to work on their own laptops are requested to install R and RStudio before the beginning of the course. R can be downloaded from: <https://cran.r-project.org/>, and RStudio is available at: <https://www.rstudio.com/>.


Michel is a writer who covers a very wide field of topics, ranging from finance and property to art and décor, but having always been fascinated by travel and discovering new places and cultures, his first love is travel writing. "I have always enjoyed contributing articles on the villages and towns of Andalucía, and now Morocco, to the Andalucia.com website. It's great fun to discover new worlds as you do the research, both visiting places in person and reading up about them."
An economist by training with a background in marketing, he has written for and edited Villas &. and Essential Marbella Magazine, as well as contributing to a large number of local and international publications, including the Easyjet and Virgin in-flight magazines, Spanish Homes and the Sunday Times Travel Magazine.


Go Outside…For a Change – Think…Feel…Be….BodyWise!
When I get stuck in a rut, physically, mentally, or spiritually, the thing that gets me unstuck best is to go outside…outside of my house, outside of my routines, outside of my comfortable thinking. Getting outside of me gives me a fresh perspective and outlook on life. When I exercise outside and breathe deeply of the crisp morning air, I expose myself, my physical and spiritual body, to the natural elements of the earth. It is then that I realize how very connected I am to the earth, and to its mysteries and rhythms. I reap much physical and emotional energy from trekking outdoors. By going outside, my muscles and my mind must work in unison as I forge against hill and dale, sun and wind, smooth and rough, road and trail.
Similarly, when I get stuck in a mental rut I find it helpful to get outside of my own head and give my mind new places to roam. Reading authors and genres to which I do not normally gravitate gives me fresh perspectives and insights into how others think and perceive. Changing things up when it comes to music, movies, and food provides similar benefits. I like to think of going 'outside' of myself as a way to inoculate myself from the dread condition of stagnancy; to be stagnant is to be unchanged and unchanging…it is so nearly like death. And so anytime I need some creative flow, or whenever I'm feeling the blues of status quo, I try to mix things up for myself. I try to get outside of my normal, whatever that may be, which I have so carefully set up around my life and I open a door and go outside…for a change.


It's still spring here in Steamboat so we decided to go out at lunch to take advantage of the softer snow in the afternoon and avoid the morning crunch.
After heading up the gondola we made our way over to Sunshine Peak to check out the "right side" of the hill. The temperatures were about the same (warm!) but the sun was hiding behind the clouds.
The blues off High Noon and Tomahawk were feeling good and the main runs were great for making quick long turns. Attempts to do much in the trees or bumps were met with icy resistance and we stayed away for the most part.
Overall we had a nice, warm, overcast day with plenty of long, tiring runs.
Ready to enjoy The Aggrolites at Steamboat! » « Big fluffy flakes have started falling in Steamboat!


What will the growing use of household solar panels mean for the centralised electricity grid? Will it mean we won't need the grid at all? As Professor Peter Newman explains, the city of Perth is providing us with an interesting case study of distributed electricity generation.


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A Haphazard Writer's Blog
Writing/Editing Services
I've wanted to be a writer since college--I started out wanting to be a journalist, then I wanted to be a technical writer. When I discovered historical fiction and particularly historical romance, i knew I'd found the genre I was passionate about, but I sure as heck wasn't passionate about the writing process. It was arduous, painful, and darned inconvenient! Now, years later I realize I was only learning to write. I spent years as a dance teacher and I knew first hand that learning an art form was painful, but somehow I never made the connection to writing so I was always slightly resentful that it didn't come easier. It took me years as a dancer, but I reached a point where I could choreograph a group dance in a couple of hours instead of weeks. Now I have finally reached a point where I can make the words come more smoothly. The point being, whatever you do, don't forget to give yourself some slack for that learning curve!
Book updates...
A few updates since I've had several desperate requests for when the next book is out!
Just last week, I finished "The False Countess," which is the story of Lord Dunsbury and Catherine Purcell. <Spoiler alert!> You may remember that Lady Eleanor's (of "The Lady's Secret") mother was trying to push Eleanor and Dunsbury together. But of course Eleanor was already in love, and so too, as it turns out, was Dunsbury. To be honest, at the time of writing "The Lady's Secret," I thought Dunsbury was simply a minor character, facilitating the action. But of course, those are the one's who knock on the inside of your brain and say, "Hullo, remember me? I've an entire backstory of my own!"
Now, five months ago, I finished Sarah's story. No, I do not have a title for it. I hate coming up with book titles--would prefer to write an entire manuscript than come up with a title (or write a blurb). I am desperately in search of a title that lets readers know it's a Regency romance and yet encapsulates a bit of who Sarah his--which is NOT your typical gently-bred lady! <Spoiler alert!> If you've read "The Lady's Secret," you know Sarah was a larger secondary character, but a secondary character nonetheless. Before I'd even finished writing "The Lady's Secret," Sarah had done more than knock on the inside of my skull, her story practically punched a hole in it. I wrote her book in four months, finishing in December of last year.
And so, here we are today! I am doing a strong first edit of "The False Countess" (this book was ridiculously easy to title) to add in all the little bits I realized I'd left out since I didn't at first know things like--oh wait, no more spoilers! As soon as that is done (within the week, I should guess) and those edits entered into the computer, I will return to Sarah and work her story over. I find that letting them rest, marinate, as it were, allows me to look at them with fresh eyes and edit objectively. Sometimes when one is in the throes of dialogue--external and internal--you know what led a character to say this or feel that, but you might have forgotten to actually share that knowledge with the reader! Even on a first re-reading, you may have that knowledge in your head and completely miss a gaping plot hole. But four or five months later, it's much easier to read the story and say, "Wait! Where did that come from?"
I really liked Sarah's story--of course I feel like a learn a great deal from every book and hopefully my writing improves as a result--and so I'm going to try something different with this one. I'm going to submit it to a few publishers. I've done this innumerable times over the twenty-plus years I've been writing. I've had editors ask for manuscripts, I've had an agent, I've had another agent I met at a conference tell me my manuscript was just what she'd been looking for, but then after she got back to New York, decided she wasn't representing romance any more. It's only partly having a good product, it's largely being in the right place at the right time. I know, this is true for most of life, but after years of the months-long waiting process only to receive another rejection, I thought, "Screw it! I'm going to publish this sucker on my own." I've been really thrilled with my books' reception through Amazon's Kindle program but I really would like the marketing powerhouse of a publisher. There are so many books out there and the whole marketing game changes on the daily with algorithms, social media, and advertising constantly evolving.
Sarah's story may yet end up on Amazons KDP list--it's important that you get to know her exciting--and slightly tragic!--background. But in the meantime, I'll attempt the "traditional" route one more time. If you know of any agents/editors who might be a fit, please email! Right place at the right time and all...
To reach me directly: michelle morrison writes (all smashed together) at gmail
Where one idea was born
Every writer is asked where the ideas come from and most of us say, "I have no idea," because the whole creative process is, well, a bit of a mystery sometimes. This is not to say plotting and character development is not a craft to be honed, but honestly, things pop into my head sometimes that make me go "Hmmm..."
However, the song "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol did spark an idea for a scene that years later became a pivotal scene in The Lady's Secret. For some reason the line "if I lay here...would you lie with me and just forget the world," evoked an image of someone cast out of society and wanting the one person who mattered to remain by his/her side. I must have listened to this song dozens of times on a roadtrip years ago imagining that scene. Now that I'm curious, I just looked up when this song came out: 2009! Which means that idea fermented in my head for about six years before it finally hit paper. This scene evolved a bit from that original imagining, but the essence of it remained!
Great, all I need is one more reason to procrastinate! As if Instagram wasn't enough...


Reducing your family's exposure to pesticides extends beyond purchasing organic food and frequenting the farmer's market. Our every-day exposure to pesticides and harmful chemicals often comes from our household items and personal care products.
Children in particular are at greater risk for being exposed to pesticides. The Environmental Protection Agency recognizes that children's internal organs are still developing and maturing and their immune systems provide less natural protection compared to adults. Scientists have linked exposure to pesticides found in the home to adverse health effects including cancer, ADHD, autism, asthma, food allergies, hormone disruption, and birth defects.
Banish triclosan: Found in most of our household soaps and sanitizers, triclosan is a neurotoxin found by the Center for Disease Control in 75 percent of people tested for the carcinogen. Check the labels of your cleaning products, toothpastes and soaps for this ingredient. Stick to all-natural soaps and detergents whenever possible.
Dust clean: Our homes are hubs for toxic exposure from the sealants used in the walls, to the paints, and debris we bring in from our shoes. Maintaining a clean and health home is extremely important. Indoor dust has been found to contain arsenic and lead. But don't get clean with toxic supplies. Mix up your own solutions with vinegar and water, or lemon oil and olive oil for a natural clean. Or opt for natural cleaning products like Method, Seventh Generation or Mrs. Meyers for daily maintenance.
Clean your water: Our water is tainted with pesticides and a number of potentially toxic organisms. Use filters whenever possible before drinking. You can even purchase special filters for the shower.
Ditch insect repellants: Insects are a bother but so are toxic sprays, repellants and chemicals to keep them at bay. Get rid of ants in your home with boric acid, a nontoxic alternative. Ditch mosquito repellent which contains the harmful chemical DEET linked to birth defects, and chose oil of lemon eucalyptus or picaridin (derived from pepper) as a replacement.
Green apparel: Our clothing is full of toxic pesticides, dyes and cancer-causing chemicals. Clothing lines Zara, H&M, Calvin Klein and many more came under scrutiny this year for the chemicals found in their clothing (which they plan on phasing out). In the meantime, stick to organic materials and purchase apparel from companies known for their commitment to safe and fair manufacturing processes such as FashoningChange.com, PureCitizen.com or Indigenous.com.
How do you currently make sure your home is pesticide-free?
Thanks for this informative tips. Any tips for all natural pest control?
Thanks for sharing this information. It is particularly important during the summer season to find DEET-free insect repellents like EcoSmart, Buzzaway Extreme, All Terrain Herbal Armour and Purple Praire Sun Stuff.
Great tips that will keep me and my family away from pest and the danger that it may give to our health and also to our house. Thank you for sharing this simple and informative tips.
Thank you so much for the great information! I will try my best to apply as much of these tips as possible in my everyday life.


Classy styling is timeless. The navy shift dress and camel-colored pumps you buy today will still be wearable ten years from now. Buying one good pair of pearl stud earrings outweighs the 10 pairs of trendy statement earrings that will be passé a year after you buy them.


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Annie Clemmer Funk (12 April 1874  15 April 1912) was an American Christian missionary and one of the more than 1500 people who perished in the sinking of . Since 1906, she had been a missionary in the Janjgir-Champa district in Chhattisgarh, India. She was on her way to visit her ailing mother.

Early life
Annie Funk was born on 12 April 1874 in the small town of Bally, Pennsylvania. Her ancestors, who settled there in the 1700s, were Mennonite emigrants from Germany. Miss Funk attended the State Normal School at West Chester.

Her home congregation, the Hereford General Conference Mennonite Church, where her father was a deacon for 25 years, nurtured her interest in missions from childhood. She attended the Northfield Bible Training School in Northfield, Massachusetts that D. L. Moody had begun. After graduation, she worked with the immigrants in the slums of Chattanooga, Tennessee and Paterson, New Jersey. She dreamt of being a missionary.

Missionary to India
After the stateside assignments, she volunteered to go overseas. She had unqualified trust in God. Once she stated to a friend who feared for her safety on the first transatlantic voyage that, "Our heavenly Father is as near to us on sea as on land. My trust is in Him. I have no fear." Thus, her dream of being a missionary was realized in December 1906, when she was sent to India as the first female Mennonite missionary.

Annie arrived in India and served in Janjgir-Champa district, in Chhattisgarh. In 1908, she opened a one-room school and hostel for poor girls. The school initially taught 17 students. She also learned Hindi during her stay. The school was later renamed the Annie C Funk Memorial School. Only the outer walls survive today, with a small plaque which describes her life and her death.

Death
Funk's work was interrupted by a telegram which read, "Come home at once. Mother very ill. Have purchased on two ships, Pater Shelly." Though she was not told that her mother was close to death, Annie made her travel plans quickly. After a long journey to Liverpool, she learned that the ship that would take her to America would be delayed by a coal strike. Her booking was transferred to . She bought her second class ticket for £13.

Titanic left Southampton on April 10, 1912. When on the fourth day of the voyage the ship struck an iceberg, Funk lost her life after (an unconfirmed story holds) giving up her lifeboat seat to a mother and a child. Her body, if recovered, was never identified.

A memorial at the Hereford Mennonite Church Cemetery, Pennsylvania recites:

A documentary titled Remembering Annie Funk was scheduled to be screened in her home state, Pennsylvania, according to Mennonite Heritage Centre website.

References

External links

1874 births
1912 deaths
Deaths on the RMS Titanic
Protestant missionaries in India
People from Janjgir-Champa district
People from Berks County, Pennsylvania
American people of German descent
American Protestant missionaries
American Mennonites
Mennonite missionaries
Female Christian missionaries
American expatriates in India

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


If you thought you couldn't afford real racing pistons, think again! Super Series pistons are custom machined to our specifications on exclusive Reher-Morrison forgings. We buy these pistons in large quantities for our Super Series engines, and we pass the savings on to our customers.
Don't confuse Reher-Morrison Super Series pistons with universal, "one-size-fits-all" pistons. Our domes are specifically CNC machined to fit the combustion chambers in Dart and Brodix cylinder heads. The valve pockets are precisely cut to provide just the right amount of clearance for our Super Series camshafts without sacrificing compression.
You'll find Pro Stock power secrets in our Super Series pistons. For example, selected Super Series pistons use gas ports and back-cut rings. Selected pistons use .043″ top and second rings that reduce friction and maintain a tight seal when the piston changes direction. Our ring grooves have the correct side and back clearances to produce the lightest possible cylinder seal for long-lasting power.
Reher-Morrison pistons are lighter than mass-produced pistons. Less piston weight means faster acceleration and less stress on the connecting rods and bottom end. Your car will run quicker and have better reliability with Reher-Morrison Super Series pistons.
Does your application require custom pistons? Call the piston experts, Reher-Morrison!
In addition to our custom Super Series racing pistons listed in the above PDF download, Reher-Morrison has both shelf or custom made to order pistons available from a variety of the nation's top piston manufacturers.
Give our Parts Department a call! We can fill most any piston needs you may require!


Prophecy Radio By Messiah's Branch!: Re-writing Nature's Recipe Book: How Ginkgo Bioworks is Poised to Upset Almost Every Industry You.
Re-writing Nature's Recipe Book: How Ginkgo Bioworks is Poised to Upset Almost Every Industry You.


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Varicose Vein Treatment Uncovers Hereditary Link
Posted on December 19, 2018 by Dr. Rimas Gilvydis
For years, Colleen Giachetti's legs bothered her. It started when she was pregnant. Then she gained a little weight. Over time, the veins in her legs started looking gnarled – a classic symptom of varicose veins. At first she thought it was a cosmetic issue. But as time passed, those veins became more and more painful. And it just kept getting worse.
"It got to the point where I was uncomfortable both walking and sitting," said Colleen. "The last 5 years were the worst. My legs just felt heavy and tired all the time."
Colleen wanted to be more active, but her leg pain made it impossible. She had always wanted to do something about her varicose veins, but she didn't have insurance that would cover it. Then, she got a new job with better insurance and she made an appointment with Dr. Gilvydis.
Walking into the clinic, Colleen felt at ease immediately. "It was very upbeat," she said. "You could tell that everyone who works there likes their job and they want to be there," noting that's often not the case at many doctor's offices.
After talking to Dr. Gilvydis, she knew she had made the right decision. "When I walked into the office, I felt confident I was in the right place and was going to be taken care of." Colleen said. "Dr. Gilvydis, was extremely kind and down to earth. He understood what it was like to have varicose veins and how to treat them. He's an amazing doctor and human being."
Dr. Gilvydis created a treatment plan and Colleen's varicose veins were first treated using endovenous laser ablation (EVLA). The procedure uses a minimally invasive laser technique.
Colleen said she was a little nervous going in for the first treatment, but the vein clinic staff made her feel comfortable immediately, greeting her and playing her favorite music throughout the procedure. About a month after both legs were treated with EVLA, she was evaluated for any residual varicose vein branches.
"In approximately 50 percent of our patients, there are a few residual veins," said Dr. Gilvydis. "These are scheduled for ultrasound guided foam sclerotherapy, which is typically performed in one session per leg. After that, there are no more follow ups or treatments necessary."
Quick Recovery Time
During recovery from each procedure, Colleen was told to walk as much as possible. She was surprised by how quickly her condition improved. "Even though my legs were still tender, I didn't have that dragging feeling I had before," she said.
Dr. Gilvydis noted that they always encourage patients to do as much walking as possible from the moment the EVLA procedure is completed. "If they are sitting, we encourage them to elevate their legs. Both of these allow for improved blood return to the heart from the veins in the legs," he said.
Today, Colleen is amazed by the results. "It's like having 20-year-old legs," she said. And they look better too. "Now, I can wear shorts and dresses without being embarrassed." Colleen said she's already told people that it's 100 percent worthwhile and they shouldn't wait to do it.
The Hereditary Link
Not only was she pleased with her results, but she also learned a lot about her condition. She remembered her grandmother had severe varicose veins. Her legs were always purple and red and painful. What she didn't know was that varicose veins were often hereditary. And she wasn't aware of the danger of blood clots caused by varicose veins. "I've told my sons that men can get varicose veins too," said Colleen.
"Since there are so many misconceptions about varicose veins, we dedicate a significant amount of our time to educating our patients on vein disease," said Dr. Gilvydis. "A majority of patients still believe that varicose veins are a cosmetic problem and that the symptoms they are experiencing in their legs are not related to their bad veins."
While lack of insurance stopped Colleen from seeking treatment earlier, Dr. Gilvydis said that as long as patients have symptoms in their legs, all insurance companies cover the initial consultation and ultrasound of the leg veins. Most will cover at least a portion of the EVLA laser procedure.
For anyone who has pain or swelling in their legs, Dr. Gilvydis recommends being evaluated for underlying varicose veins. "A referral to the vein clinic is no longer necessary," he said. "You can call and make an appointment directly."
Foods That Can Negatively Affect Your Vein Health
Cold Weather and Your Veins


^ The average commercial electricity rate in Palmdale, CA is 11.81¢/kWh.
^ The average residential electricity rate in Palmdale, CA is 15.98¢/kWh.
^ The average industrial electricity rate in Palmdale, CA is 8.16¢/kWh.
The average commercial electricity rate in Palmdale is 11.81¢/kWh.
This average (commercial) electricity rate in Palmdale is 11.93% less than the California average rate of 13.41¢/kWh.
The average (commercial) electricity rate in Palmdale is 17.05% greater than the national average rate of 10.09¢/kWh. Commercial rates in the U.S. range from 6.86¢/kWh to 34.88¢/kWh.
The average residential electricity rate in Palmdale is 15.98¢/kWh.
This average (residential) electricity rate in Palmdale is 4.17% greater than the California average rate of 15.34¢/kWh.
The average (residential) electricity rate in Palmdale is 34.51% greater than the national average rate of 11.88¢/kWh. Residential rates in the U.S. range from 8.37¢/kWh to 37.34¢/kWh.
The average industrial electricity rate in Palmdale is 8.16¢/kWh.
This average (industrial) electricity rate in Palmdale is 22.21% less than the California average rate of 10.49¢/kWh.
The average (industrial) electricity rate in Palmdale is 22.34% greater than the national average rate of 6.67¢/kWh. Industrial rates in the U.S. range from 4.13¢/kWh to 30.82¢/kWh.
Palmdale is a city located in Los Angeles County in the state of California, and has a population of approximately 152,750.
For more information about Palmdale electricity, or for additional resources regarding electricity & utilities in your state, visit the Energy Information Administration.


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You are here: Home › First look: Proposed Orlando ballpark
First look: Proposed Orlando ballpark
By Kevin Reichard on October 21, 2010 in Features, Minor-League Baseball
Armando Gutierrez Jr. continues his attempt to bring affiliated ball back to Orlando, this time with a little taste of what a new Orlando Yankees (High Class A; Florida State League) ballpark would look like.
Gutierrez's plan relies on receiving free land from Orange County at the corner of the Beeline (OK, the BeachLine) and International Drive (specifically, southwest of that intersection), near the Orlando Convention Center, Seaworld and I-4, as well as some other government assistance to build a baseball-themed museum as part of the ballpark complex.
Like all ballpark renderings, it looks wonderful. If everything falls into place, the Tampa Yankees could relocate for the 2013 season. And no, there are no plans to include enough room for a spring-training facility as part of the ballpark.
RELATED STORIES: Affiliated ball back to Orlando?
Lake County Captains acquired by COLLiDE Sport
beachline, convention center drive, florida state league, high class a, museum, new york yankees, orlando, orlando yankees, relocation, tampa yankees
How much financial information is enough for a ballclub to disclose?
First look: Proposed St. Paul Saints ballpark
Kansas City Royals narrow new-ballpark site search February 1, 2023


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Posted on March 17, 2019 April 2, 2019
St Andrew Church Singapore Mass Schedule
The Major Archbishop and the Synod of the Syro-Malabar Church has jurisdiction only within the five metropolitan provinces of Ernakulam-Angamaly, Changanacherry, Trichur, Tellicherry and Kottayam, limited to Kerala and some parts of Tamilnadu and Karnataka.
Old St. Andrew. Mass. St. John's Episcopal Church, East Windsor: 9 a.m. service. St. John's Episcopal Church, Pine Meadow: 8 & 10 a.m. services. St. John's Episcopal Church, West Hartford: 8 &.
↑Entries from 2018. December 18, 2017 — Books, Books, and More Books. I have at last received a sheaf of recently published Hippocampus Press books, as follows:
Roman Catholics hurry to mass at St. Joseph's Cathedral. Metres away, a chorus of voices rises from inside St. Andrew's as Anglicans begin. Father Ani Xavier has been coping with a hectic schedule.
ST. LOUIS • The sin of stealing a century-old confessional door from a historic south St. Louis church can be absolved by bringing it back. "I kind of just hope someone drops it off out front in the.
186 Comments. Brother Nathanael January 3, 2010 @ 6:53 pm. Dear Real Zionist News Family & All Readers – I really don't see things getting better. In fact, for those of us who were born in the 1950s, it is obvious that things have gotten progressively worse.
This includes lights out at 9 p.m., rising for midnight prayer, and rising again at 5:20 a.m. St. Andrew's Abbey. Divine Mysteries/Mass is currently being held in a barn converted to a church at.
There is a weekly Saturday Mass at 9 a.m. and a Saturday vigil at 5:15 p.m. On holy days vigils will be held at 9 a.m. and 5:15 and 7:30 p.m. Information: 215-257-2128. St. Andrew's Lutheran Church.
Father Mark Nyeko distributes ashes during Ash Wednesday Mass. Ascension Church of St. Philip Parish. • Soup, salad and speaker series, Wednesdays, March 13-April 10, 6:15-8:30 p.m., Conner Hall at.
This list shows donee organisations that we have approved for the purposes of sections LD1, DB 41 and DV 12 of the Income Tax Act 2007. When a person makes a donation to an organisation listed here, generally they can claim a tax credit (formerly rebate) for that donation.
The Use of Invective in Apologetics by Sandy Simpson. This DVD is a message based on this article. This article is about the use of invective while attempting to do apologetics or teaching discernment.
CORPUS CHRISTI (TX) Corpus Christi Caller Times. January 31, 2019. By Alexandria Rodriguez. The Catholic Diocese of Corpus Christi released the names of priests and other clergy Thursday that have been "credibly" accused of sexual abuse of minors.
St. Peter's Boys High School's annual fund is the foundation for operating our school. By supporting our annual fund you are demonstrating your belief in our mission, traditions and everything that we offer as Staten Island's premier Catholic high school for young men.
Graduate Studies at StFX. While StFX is best known for its strong tradition as a primarily undergraduate university, graduate students are a vital component of the StFX academic community.
History. The earliest predecessor of the Supreme Court was the Court of Judicature of Prince of Wales' Island (now Penang), Singapore and Malacca, which was established by the Second Charter of Justice, issued by the Crown as letters patent dated 27 November 1826. The Court was presided over by the Governor of the Straits Settlements and Resident Councillor of the settlement where the court.
Welcome. Welcome, and thank you for visiting St. Andrew's Parish online. We hope that our website highlights the wide variety of worship, fellowship and community participation opportunities available to you and your family.
Saint Anthony of Padua (Portuguese: Santo António de Pádua), born Fernando Martins de Bulhões (15 August 1195 – 13 June 1231) – also known as Saint Anthony of Lisbon (Portuguese: Santo António de Lisboa) – was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order.He was born and raised by a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, and died in Padua, Italy.
Singapore. prior to mass deployment," the spokesperson added. The MOE earlier stated the nine schools in the pilot program include Hong Kah Secondary School; Hua Yi Secondary School; Juying Primary.
St. Andrew. Moravian Church on the Square will present identical services at 5 and 8 p.m. tomorrow. Both will include a lovefeast and traditional Morning Star solos. Holy Family Church, 23 Forest.
Saturday, Feb. 2 Alpenfrost — Check gaylordalpenfrost.com for the schedule of activities. 5 p.m. 711 W. Main St., Gaylord. (989) 732-5661. Al-Anon — Meets at 7 p.m. at St. Andrew Episcopal Church,
St. Andrew Catholic Church, 9950 NW 29th St. Christmas Eve Mass schedule: 3 p.m. open church; 5 p.m. children's Mass; 6:30 p.m. Life Teen Mass, 8 p.m. Spanish Mass, 10 p.m. and midnight open church.
Church of Holy Trinity: Singapore Catholic church at 20 Tampines Street 11; site has info about the mass schedule, parish groups, parish events, kindergarten run by the parish
Morning worship — 10 a.m. Church is handicapped. after morning Mass; Wednesday, St. Jude Thaddeus Novena after morning Mass; Saturday, St. Francis Novena after morning Mass. 113 W. Alpha Ave.,
Bermuda's 2019 Cruise Ship Schedule of Calls They began in January, with 12 more arrivals this year than in 2018. By Keith Archibald Forbes (see About Us) exclusively for Bermuda Online. Cruise ship at Bermuda's main cruise port, King's Wharf, Dockyard.
North Main Street Baptist Church Main Street Baptist Church. 126 North Main Street, Kernersville, NC 27284 • Directions. Loading… The GriefShare experience. Watch this video to learn what it's like to join a GriefShare group. Group details. Contact person Tina Howard, Lead Facilitator 336-972-8854. Conveniently located just 2.5 miles north of the Dan River near the Danville Expressway in Danville,
The life and death of Argentinian first lady Eva Peron comes to life in the Andrew. Mass" because the composer used recycled music from his oratorio The Creation in a portion of the "Gloria".
Goehring came to Bethesda in 1993 from St. Mark's Roman Catholic Church, New York City. He had maintained a busy concert schedule. including St. Andrew's Cathedral and Victoria Concert Hall in.
Or a disruption in our schedule because of a bicycle race around the. perhaps none more poignant than from the monsignor's Mass in St. Jerome's Cave near the Church of the Nativity and under the.
"What were eastern Nebraska and Kansas like 100 million years ago?In the Central Plains, the Dakota rocks run in a band from southwestern Minnesota, southeastern South Dakota, northwestern Iowa, and eastern Nebraska (Dakota City to Lincoln and Fairbury) to central Kansas, northwestern Oklahoma and northeastern New Mexico.The sediments that became the rocks of the Dakota Group were eroded.
Midnight Mass. Call 864-8043. Our Lady of Perpetual Help Byzantine Catholic Church, 1837 Alvarado NE, nativity divine liturgy at 10 a.m. Call 256-1539. Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Cedar Crest,
St. Peter's Church, 422 Coventry Ave., Utica, will be having Stations of the Cross at 6:30 p.m. Fridays during Lent, followed by Mass. • First Presbyterian. both the Eastern and Western Churches.
For information and to schedule an appointment call Joan at. Sarasota 7th Day Adventist Church, 5764 Churchill Downs Road: 11 a.m. Saturdays. 924-6223. • St. Andrew United Church of Christ, 6908.
Get the latest international news and world events from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and more. See world news photos and videos at ABCNews.com
WARNING – BILL JOHNSON and BETHEL CHURCH. by Andrew Strom. I am really hoping to make this the last of this type of article for awhile. Some people think I "love" putting out this stuff.
Full Gospel Baptist Church Atlanta ATHENS, Alabama – Solomon Temple Full Gospel Baptist Church, 2041 U. S. 31 South in Athens, Ala., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday, Dec. 27, 2013. Xavier Jarman signed as the authorized. Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship in Atlanta, GA About Search Results YP – The Real Yellow Pages SM – helps you find
Powered by the Tampa Bay Times, tampabay.com is your home for breaking news you can trust. Set us as your home page and never miss the news that matters to you. Sources: ComScore, Nielsen.
Divine Mercy Chaplet Novena Prayer The Divine Mercy chaplet, Divine Mercy novena and Divine Mercy Sunday. Today is the first day of the Novena. We pray on this day for all of suffering humankind. The world is dying for lack of. The Divine Mercy chaplet is prayed using rosary beads with special texts emphasizing the. The Divine Mercy Novena begins
Churches In West Monroe La Mayo Tours was Established in 1978 in West Monroe, LA Proud member of the United Motor Coach & South Central Motor Coach Associations Dept of Defense Approved Carrier As a reservist, Sherman served in Germany during the Berlin Airlift, in which U.S., British and French cargo planes brought supplies to West Berlin for more than.
The performance schedule and guest organists are. soloist Ms. Robinson serves as organist at St. Andrew's Anglican Church, Fort Worth, Texas. A sought after collaborative pianist, she has appeared.
Nov. 8, 9 & 10, 2019 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back—in Concert.
Rest in Peace Bill. Always appreciated the times we were on Church Council.
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Interrupting your Future Fridays with some art hot off the presses!
We just got the our cover finished for the first Ruined Campaign book: The Ruined City.
If you love it as much as we do, check out the artist Daniel Tyka here (https://artificialdesign.artstation.com/) for more of his amazing artwork!
The Ruined City is due to be released exactly two months from today, so stay tuned!


Operating in a market segment that provides plentiful development and growth opportunities, Raiffeisen Asset Management offers innovative services and products in its effort to attract a wider range of customers. In an interview with Business Arena, Razvan Szilagyi, CEO and President, Raiffeisen Asset Management, speaks about his company strategy and the challenges along the way.
What new products are you offering to customers who want to put their money in investment funds? What other new products have you brought on the market?
for short- and medium-term targets, and SmartInvestTime, for objectives that require a longer time to achieve. Each of those two solutions comprises three investment funds administrated by Raiffeisen Asset Management: RonPlus, Confort, and Benefit. Their objective is to offer higher returns than investments in classic savings instruments, with limited risks and no SmartInvest entry and exit fee.
Moreover, even though both SmartInvest solutions are designed as longer-term savings solutions, investors have free access to their savings at all times.
Our challenge was to find a solution that could meet our customers' returns expectations, while, at the same time, it had to be adapted to a risk appetite that is essentially on the lower side, catering to most individuals in Romania that are interested in saving. Considering the lack of a general predisposition towards saving among regular people, who are the main target market for SmartInvest, we decided to come to their assistance with a solution that is easy to understand and affordable.
To access the SmartInvest solution, customers need a minimum initial investment of 600 lei, followed by subsequent monthly savings of at least 200 lei. There are no entry and exit fees for any of the three funds, if they are accessed through the SmartInvest solution.
we have made available the Raiffeisen Acumulare pension fund through Raiffeisen Bank's branch network. We had the same objective: to offer accessible solutions to our customers. The fund was launched in 2008 and it has had a very good investment performance.
What would your advice be to those people who have never invested in investment funds?
First of all, my advice to people is to keep in mind that they are solely responsible for their own financial health. A good deal of their objectives in life can be achieved with money: their children's education, a carefree old age or something on the "bucket list" – those things we want to do in life. It's not complicated to invest, but it requires attention. What we invest in only becomes important when we know what we want to do.
for my age, for my fears, for my ambitions.
I can find simple funds that are easy to understand (investments in deposits and bonds) as well as complex funds (with different investment strategies). Not all of us have investment experience and we don't have the time to be "in the market". Investing in an investment fund means that we leave our money in the hands of investment professionals. Of course, that involves a cost, but, most of the time, the alternative is considerably more expensive. Last but not least, I would invest in funds because they offer a significant degree of protection. The market is regulated and supervised both at local and European level.
What would you invest in now, if you had some extra cash?
I strongly believe in what we do here at Raiffeisen Asset Management (RAM). So, can't see how this could be otherwise: all my money has been invested in funds administrated by RAM. I have a savings plan (SmartInvest) for my children's education, I contribute to the optional pension fund and I have a "bucket list" portfolio. Coming back to your question, if there is no immediate need for cash, I will supplement my current contributions, most likely for the children.
Please explain what is going on in the pension funds segment?
There have been discussions in the market about the Pillar 2 pension fund, but it is not clear how many people actually understand what this is about?
The state pension (Pillar 1) is based on our contributions. In exchange for those contributions, we receive a promise that the future generations will pay our pension. Our pension is going to depend on the next generation's will and means. I am not going to express any opinions about our children's will to pay our pensions from their salaries, As for their means, it's obvious that, if the number of employees is small compared to the number of pensioners, there will be problems. Demography isn't offering very good news. I think the most important aspect that we need to understand is that, in most cases, we could only expect this pension to cover basic needs (such as food and drugs), in an optimistic scenario.
The compulsory private pension (Pillar 2) is also based on social contributions. Basically, part of the taxes paid are invested: in bonds, in stocks or in other instruments. I am going to receive back the invested money from my contributions and the return on my investments. As opposed to the previous system, the money I receive is not paid by the next generation and it also comes with returns. I believe in the importance of compulsory private pension funds and the way in which they complement the state pension. We must point out, however, that, in most cases, Pillars 1 and 2 are not likely to allow us to reach the expected living standards. Roughly, the two will only cover around 60 percent of our financial needs.
The optional private pension represents the third pillar of the pensions system. Similar to Pillar 2, we have a personal account and we know what our money is invested in. In this case, we have control over how much we invest. That depends on us or on our employers, if they provide such benefits. The invested money comes from our salaries and it is object to favorable fiscal conditions. The optional pension together with the state and compulsory pensions can provide us with the carefree life that we aspire to.
What is the general population's level of financial education with regard to investment funds? How could it be improved?
Unfortunately, it's not good. Surveys have shown quite clearly that we are at the bottom of the European rankings in terms of financial education. Currently, there are fewer than 310,000 investors in mutual funds in Romania, and around 460,000 investors in optional pension programs. That's very little. There are quite a few things that could be done. Perhaps they haven't achieved visibility yet, but many things are already being done in the industry. It is important for these efforts to be coordinated, so that we can accomplish truly visible results. But, most importantly, people should understand that it is mainly their responsibility to make decisions for their own future. As with anything important, it takes patience and attention. Later, when they have understood the importance of such investments and their interest has been stirred, it's going to be our duty to explain things and assist them.
the first bank in Romania to offer its customers structured deposits. From 2015, he has been CEO of Raiffeisen Asset Management (RAM), the second largest mutual fund administrator in Romania.
RAM also has an optional pension fund (Pillar 3). Together with his 30-strong team, he manages assets with a combined value of around one and a half billion euros. Over the years, they have achieved a long list of industry firsts: funds investing on foreign markets, capital protection or class distribution funds, similar to dividends. His mission is to help customers fulfil their dreams, mainly those that involve money: a carefree old age, children's education or a trip around the world. How can he help? "With simple products that are in line with customers' needs and individual requirements. With clear and easy to understand explanations. With a little nudge, because we are all human and it's normal for us to make mistakes or forget." Razvan strongly believes in the power of the team. He sees good employees as the company's most important resource. He generally believes in people and in what he does. He manages the business as if it were his own, and he wants to instill the same attitude into his team. On a personal note, he is married with two children – a warm family that provides him balance.


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Q: Cast Bindingsoure.Current to POCO I have a sqldatareader that gets assigned to a bindingsource and a datagridview datasource to that.
When I look at the type of Bindingsoure.Current its a DataRecordInternal.  How can I cast that to my POCO?
Will I have to manually work out which fields in the Current object relate to my POCO.  I could do it through my POCO and just take the Grid.Cells[0]["ID"] and populate it that way but that is obviosuly another hit to the DB.

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