G20: Black Bloc

G20: Black Blog. My post is actually in the comment section. The Blogger system would not allow me to copy and paste it into my blog. My post is actual an abstract from something I wrote. The orginal was too long to post in the comments section. G20: Black Bloc.

Utube as a marketing means: all4one

Utube as a marketing means. No surprise here, but thought this was interesting. I heard "I Swear" by all4one on the local radio station the other day (I swear these plugs aren't intentional, just the really bad puns lol)...so I looked them up on utube there was songs of theirs some that I begun to expect to be there to advertise the band (to their original and new audiences) because there was a bunch more that the sound tracks were removed by utube because of 'copyright' issues (translation, someone wasn't getting paid) and because for a band that was as big as they were the counters were just a few hundred...anyways looked up the band's official website and sure enough a new CD in Wal-mart stories (maybe Wal-mart will give me a royalty? lol). http://www.all-4-one.com/video.html

Even by pointing this out I fall into the trap of helping utube and their clients sneakily advertise...

H1N1 Stats

Canadian H1N1 Deaths Stats:
Updated Fridays (Canadian Government): http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/alert-alerte/h1n1/surveillance-eng.php

USA H1N1 Deaths Stats (graph C):
Oct. 27, 2009 (CDC, USA Government): http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/surveillanceqa.htm

Most Commom Advice:

• Wash/sanitize hands.
• Cover month with sleeve when sneezing and/or coughing.
• If you are in a high risk group (medical conditions, young, old, etc.) get the vaccine.

My Advice:

• The above (especially the first two).
• And watch the news less often as they have all become fear mongers! This especially goes for CBC which because of repeating the same information over and over again making things sound much, much worser than they are...

Other Articles:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_flu_pandemic

Ecstasy or MDMA

abstracts source:
http://www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Health_Services/Health_Education/atod/od_ecstasy.htm

"Are there short-term dangers of taking Ecstasy?Pills sold as Ecstasy may not be Ecstasy at all. MDMA purchased on the street is frequently laced with other drugs like cocaine, heroine, PCP, or toxic chemicals like PMA and DXM, atropine, and rat poison. In a 1996 study of Ecstasy content, 19 out of 33 pills (58%) were found to contain less than 25% MDMA. Only 5 pills (15%) were more than 75% MDMA.
Second, users report a number of side effects, including:
Heatstroke (also known as hyperthermia)
Nausea
Muscle tension
Blurred vision
Faintness
Chills
Sweating
Teeth clenching
Day-after depression
Ecstasy raises your body temperature and heart rate. Combine this with hot conditions, the physical activity of dancing in a party or club, and not drinking water, and the greatest immediate danger of MDMA is heatstroke. Heatstroke (or hyperthermia) is the primary cause of death from Ecstasy. Someone taking Ecstasy should make sure to drink about a pint of water every hour while on Ecstasy, sipping, rather than drinking it all at once. Also, taking breaks from dancing on a hot dance floor to cool off is an important way to reduce the risk of heatstroke. Ecstasy-related deaths are relatively rare (there were 27 nationwide from 1994 to 1999). However, emergency room hospital visits are on the rise.Ecstasy causes the release of norepinephrine, which increases your heart rate dramatically and can be dangerous for people with cardiovascular disease or weakness. Dehydration can also lead to liver or kidney failure. Some people report bad emotional reactions to Ecstasy including confusion, depression, sleep problems, drug craving, severe anxiety, and paranoia, sometimes lasting long after taking the drug. Using Ecstasy with alcohol and/or other drugs can increase the risk of adverse effects. Alcohol is dehydrating, too, and its depressant effects can mask the stimulant properties of Ecstasy misleading the user about how intoxicated they really are.
Finally, some studies have shown that people who use Ecstasy are more likely to engage in other risky behaviors such as binge drinking, cigarette smoking, and having multiple sexual partners. The use of Ecstasy and other club drugs can also lead to unsafe sex, the spread of HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and unwanted pregnancy.back to top"

"Are there long-term consequences to taking Ecstasy?Although further studies are needed, more and more research suggests that Ecstasy causes serotonin levels to drop below normal, which impairs the brain's ability to learn, retain information and regulate mood. It appears that Ecstasy causes serotonin receptors, which allow the serotonin to fire in the brain, to shrink from overuse. Some evidence shows that restoration of serotonin receptors is possible with continued abstinence from the drug, but that people who have never taken Ecstasy have more functioning serotonin receptors than those who have.
Other studies suggest that regular or heavy Ecstasy use has long-term negative effects on memory and brain function which go well beyond the last pill taken (and seem to continue to increase in spite of long-term abstinence from the drug). One study found that women are particularly vulnerable to damage to the serotonin system by MDMA. back to top
How do I recognize a problem with Ecstasy?Some danger signs are:
More frequent use
Needing more and more to get the same effect
Spending time thinking about using the drug
Spending more money than you have on it
Missing class or failing to finish assignments because of Ecstasy.
Making new friends who do it and neglecting old friends who don't
Finding it's hard to be happy without it.
If you find that you can't stop using Ecstasy, then remember, there's help available. back to top"

"Is Ecstasy addictive?Heavy users whose serotonin system is regularly depleted by the drug rely on greater quantities of the drug to produce smaller and smaller effects. Because your serotonin supply is finite, repeated dosing cannot provide a stronger or lengthened high after all your serotonin has been released. A study of young adult and adolescent ecstasy users found that 43% were dependent, and 34% met the criteria for drug abuse. Almost 60% of users reported both physical and emotional withdrawal symptoms. Frequently, though, Ecstasy users also use other drugs and alcohol and may be addicted to more than one drug simultaneously."

Minotaur and the Labyrinth

Most of us have heard the legend of the Minotaur and Labyrinth. Part of the thought on this subject is that the "royal Minoan palace on Crete" (1) was the bases of the myth and this is shown by currency coins showing the Labyrinth on one-side and the Minotaur on the other (2). However, I see some issue with this situation.
　
While I'm not sure who would have authorize the production of coins at this time it would seem reasonable that they would not have wanted to draw attention to where the palace kept it valuables. Likewise it would seem that non-trusted people's would be not allowed to enter the palace's storage area for security purposes. This means at the time there was most likely very little knowledge of the design of the storage area in general public circulation. It can be further reasoned from these that it is unlikely the storage area of the palace was 'the Labyrinth' based on the lack of the knowledge of the layout of the storage area available at the time and those doing the authorization of coin production would not have wanted to draw attention to the royal storage.

Links:
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minotaur
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_coinage

Intra-personal Christianity

Is meaning of Christianity limited solely to that of the relationship of individuals to God? Perhaps the answer lies within the question whether God standards are set on an individual bases or for all of humanity? It would appear then disagreements of behaviors that some would consider un-Christian or even sinful may be argued as being Christian or non-sinful if the person justified the actions based on intra-personal relationship with God: lets for argument sake they truly feel or believe that a certain behavior that others view as unchristian or sinful is not according to what they perceive to be God's wishes. This would leave some holding an intra-personal believes that those same actions are unchristian or sinful. If meaning of Christianity lies within intra-personal relationships then does this mean God's intention is for us to learn to live together harmoniously despite these contradictions. If this is the case does this mean there is no such thing as unchristian or sinful behaviors?

Surreal Behavior

I was thinking over the last little while what makes personalities? I remember when I was younger how my peers fitted in what seemed like various different categories: the jocks, nerds, geeks, Goths, stoners, and etc. It seemed to me back then, from what I can remember that certain of these categories were personalities. That some tried so hard to rebel by doing so they adopt a rigorous personalities (what if anything they were trying to get away from) or others tried so hard to confirm to society's and their peers' expectations they end up going to far and failing.

That adults and parents walked the balancing line between directing children’s behaviors towards personalities and away from others without at the same time pre-determining for those children what their personalities become. That eventually we reach adulthood believing we have reached our true personalities, and finding ourselves regretting the interference that adults had on raising us swearing that we would not do the same...and not usually quite realizing that the issue was not the actual treatment by the adults that we reject but the interference and as such the matter of us determining our future personalities: what we now see as the struggle through/against the pre-determination of our parents in early-adulthood to claim true personalities (i.e., ourselves).

But we for the benefit for our children then do the same thing as our parents we interfere directing towards personalities and away from others, yet still trying to walk that fine-line. But we do not stop and think, about are own personalities beyond the affects of the interference our parents played in pre-determining them and the struggle we went through shaping ourselves in early adulthood: we got rid of some expects, change others, adopted still other expects.

We also change our personalities as situations arise and act differently in front of our friends as we would in front of our bosses, children and yes, even our parents: we do these with all parities knowing we are behaving different because we all do it. Then, those that reject doing this; they try to act the same way in front of everyone, but society does not give them an easy run of it. But even these people have adopted a personality: a personality of rejecting having many faces (or at least limited number of them and even then only a little modified).

We now realize that we can never escape our personalities (that perhaps we even started developing our first personality before we are even born). That perhaps while thinking the contrary we can never escape having personalities; we can never truly find ourselves as it is always covered by personalities (if you prefer you may call what I am calling personalities as personality elements—to say if you do not like the unintentional suggestion towards multiple personalities). We may like to believe that we become masters of our personalities (that we know whom we have become because we have at some point taken on the role of determiner. The reality is despite being grown-up (or that at least we would like to think) we are controlled by our personalities as much as we control them for if no other reason our personalities cannot be changed overnight: we are lost within and to personalities.

Republic of Lakotah / Lakota

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Lakotah

Does anybody know what, if any, connection the Republic of Lakotah has with the herbal treatment? Is it simply a company that uses Lakotah as its name? Is it the U.S. government recognized tribal governments of the Lakotah people(s)? Is there a legal battle(s) for name use? Does revenue from the Herbal treatments go towards funding the "withdrawal" from the United States? I mean, does anybody know the answers to these questions, for interest sake?

I was also reading on a blog or website (sorry, cannot retrace to relocate it) that had a comment on it that suggested that this might be an attempt by the Lakotah people to get independence status as indigenous people in Canada have done (i.e., an independent nation within a nation). I do not believe this to be the case, as in Canada it was the Federal government and the government recognized tribal governments that made these deals, and so far to my understanding the U.S. government has not recognized the authority to govern by those wanting to withdraw. Furthermore, from everything I have read the claim of those wanting to withdraw has been that the Lakotak people have never really been apart of America as America voided the treaties by not adhering to them. While an argument could be made this is a tactic that they are trying to force the American government to live up to what the Lakotah people perceive to be the treaty agreements; it seems to me, based on what I have read, they want out of the United States of America's Federation.

http://www.republicoflakotah.com/index.htm

Manikins as an Idealized Body Form

I find it interesting how idealized store manikins are becoming. What I mean by this is that the body shape of them does not match their purpose as they are immediately covered up with clothes; the detail is simply not necessary. That this idealization of the manikin is a relation of the view of that we as people need to become idealized ourselves: that it is not ok just to be normal that all of us imagine the goal of perfection.

I would like to say this idealization of manikins is the industry attempt to get us to think if we buy the same clothing the manikin has then we too will have a perfect body, but the manikins’ body is usually covered-up so I do not think this is the case. However, I think the message idealization has crept into all of us, including those that design manikins. Perhaps it is as some may claim: that the design of manikins is to better show-off the clothes to fit the human figure. I disregard this on the grounds that as the last time I checked most people do not have perfect bodies (in fact, it more common, from what I have seen, that people have love-handles than six-packs abs).

This leaves me with the hypothesis that the bodies of manikins have result from our obsession of the idealization of the human body. However, I am not willing to totally disregard the hypothesis that this is the industry attempt to try to convince us that by buying products we can achieve idealized bodies; as I have to admit I only wish my pants fit and look as well as I have seen other pants on manikins (and I would be extremely happy if I woke-up and found that I lost my love-handles as the manikins seem to have).

The Human Condition

The "Human Condition" is often said to be how people live their lives. This is meant mostly to mean how people physically survive; that is what practices they take part in to continue to exist (i.e., hunting, gathering, pre-industrial, industrial, post-industrial, etc.). This has been expanded to encompass what cultural elements they take part in as well such as religion, etc. The reason for this is that there is a tie in between the physical practices and cultural elements that exist in most if not all societies or at least within sub-cultural of societies such as hunters. I strongly believe that the human condition can be individualized if generalities can be found that people can fit into. How many conditions of individuals have you seen? There are virtually countless-combinations.

Symbols of Adulthood

I have provided the articles below to show the reference point of this blog posting. When I saw these articles the symbolic value of driving became apparent to me. The importance of it is being independent, being more grown up, becoming an adult. We would all like to believe that this is a notion of teenagers, and once we reach adulthood we know longer believe it. The truth however, if we are being honest with ourselves, is the notion stays in the back of our minds. Mothers and fathers get concern over their children driving not only because of the potential of vehicle accidents but the concern of whether or not they have properly prepared their children for life: as it comes to them that their children are quickly growing older and there is less time to teach them life lessons.

There are also other symbols that we hate to admit we place meaning on as adults such as smoking, alcohol, and etc. Think about when was the last time you were at a party that the others their where not drinking alcohol? The last time you where at a party (not just hosting it) and you saw a someone you knew their without a drink in their hands: did you offer them a drink or did you question them why they where not drinking? If you are wondering how we can protect children from these vices or how to prevent them from growing-up ‘too fast’? The answer lies in not putting emphasis on these vices. The answer is to downplay them.

A lot of people believe that youngsters listen to their peers over their parents. This may be true until they are older and they return to their root teachings; however, parents have a silent, indirect impact in the present (where your children peers have a more vocal direct impact in the present) based on history. How often when growing-up will your child see you drinking at an event? What message is this sending about how adults interact with each other?

__________


Are Teens Becoming Better Drivers
http://finance.sympatico.msn.ca/insurance/insight/kanetix/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5297513

Teen Drivers: Safety Priorities
by Larry Edsall and the Editorial Team
http://en.autos.sympatico.msn.ca/guides_and_advice/article.aspx?cp-documentid=635485

Socio-psychosis

My posting today is about what I refer to as socio-psychosis. I am sure everyone has seen it. It is the desire to belong to a group so badly that those that catch it lose all sense of reason. They send themselves over to the group to the extent that they start losing themselves. However, the psychosis arises when there is a conflict between what the individual wants and what the group wants. I am not speaking here of just simply the working of a group of friends rather that of a group that tries to develop it own culture or mindset. In short, it is the conflict between individual identity and group identity.

Many individuals want to identify themselves by a belonging to a group, but they do not want to give up there individualism. Moreover, these people that come together to form a collective group want to identify themselves as belonging to a collective [startrek pun not intended], but they are unwilling or unable to spend the time and energy needed to develop the social bonds to create an adhesive group.

I have witness many groups that I have internal struggles instead of working together to mediate a solution to these problems based on the group principles (in affect either finding a solution, to the conflict between the members, to the collectives satisfaction or enforcing through punishment the principles of the group) they choose to pay no attention to the problem (often asking the victim to pretend to not have been victimized) and thereby alienating a member thereby eroding the group's collective conscious/cohesiveness. My point is this, before joining a group that wants an identity ask yourselves these following questions: does this group want me to give-up my own individual identity to the extent that the group can be considered a cult, am I and the group willing to put in the time and effort needed to create and maintain a group identity, is this group going to respect me as a member and as a human being, etc.?

RACISM

I once had racist behaviors described to me as existing on a spectrum. I do not like this as it implies that everyone is at least somewhat racist. However, I think the point that racism takes on many different forms both pronounced and quite is correct. I think some people, if not all people, are racially awkward: they do not know what to say or act around people of a different race. If race divides us, can it bring us together? Can we learn to apperiacte our differences?

Race, I find is a very interesting issue. Within the topic of race we very quickly find ourselves dealing with the issue of culture. What is it? Who has it? Is it defind by what it is (I mean what elements it contains) or what it is different than (I mean what elements it does not have as compared to those cultures that have them)? We approach the topic of how to create culture for those that had their destroyed. Is their culture one of collective suffering? For these many peoples is it possible for them create a new culture of their own, in what form will these cultures turn out to be? Will they try to re-developed their lost cultures and languages or will they develop a new culture? If a new culture, will this culture create itself with elements of both the lost culture and those who's culture destroyed their culture.

Proably both in relation to elements. I mean a culture is proably best described as the thread that ties people together that is distinct from other threads belong to other peoples. However, a person or people are unable to see their own culture as they are within their own cultural fabric. I suppose the test to determine if a culture has been destroyed is when those that once belonged to a culture no longer see themselves as apart from the culture that assimilated them. However, this may not occur; instead, those that were attempted to be assimilated may act in the same fashion as those that assimilated them, but stay seperate from them in relation to the culture of collective suffering that the people went through when they were being assimilated. In short, they act like their aggressors but identify themselves with each other as the victim (i.e., concious collective as 'victim').