The Effect, Lucy Prebble takes on pharma capitalism and the folly of a pain-free life.

Off-Broadway • Mar 21, 2016

http://www.theatermania.com/off-broadway/reviews/the-effect_76408.html?cid=outbrain

So much of this play is about human resistance to uniformity and the scientific method itself: How can one person truly serve as a control for another when the two subjects have radically different backgrounds, attitudes, and chemical predispositions?

Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, 2 April 2016

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35947702

The threat from terrorists trying to launch a nuclear attack that would “change our world” is real, President Barack Obama has said.

The world has taken “concrete” steps to prevent nuclear terrorism, he told the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington.

But the so-called Islamic State (IS) obtaining a nuclear weapon is “one of the greatest threats to global security,” he added.

. . . . . . .

At the summit, Mr Obama was asked about recent comments by presidential hopeful Donald Trump.

The Republican front-runner had floated the idea that Japan and South Korea should have nuclear weapons, a dramatic departure from decades of US foreign policy.

“The person who made the statement doesn’t know much about foreign policy, nuclear policy, the Korean peninsula or the world generally,” Mr Obama said.

A. Piazzolla. Libertango Moscow City Symphony – Russian Philharmonic Moscow City Symphony – Russian Philharmonic

A. Piazzolla. Libertango

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_2QAki-GRk

Armic – Tango Flamenco

Listening to Tango Music – This is how I pass my time on Good Friday afternoon. It goes on and on. I was really out to read a bit more in Mick Gordon’s book of essays:

THEATRE AND THE MIND

The third essay in the book is titled “Emotion, Thought and Action.

I says in that essay for instance: ” . . . the way we think about things, the way we interpret our thoughts, determines how we feel and behave.”

Listening to music, doesn’t this determine how I feel? Does my brain tell me, how I should feel about the music? Also, the feeling is immediately there when I do not like some music.

So it is probably true that my thoughts do very much influence how I feel and act. I am going to try to reflect about this a bit more. Yes, I think, it is true, I mostly let my thinking determine my feelings and how I act.

I hope I can soon write about this a bit more.

More about Tulsi Gabbard

https://auntyuta.com/2016/03/13/sanders-campaign-gets-sparks-and-sparkle/

https://bryanhemming.wordpress.com/2016/03/12/sanders-campaign-gets-sparks-and-sparkle/

The above is a link to Bryan Hemming’s post that I reblogged yesterday.

Now I googled Tulsi Gabbard and found an article in The Guardian from February 28. I find this article explains in a few words what Tulsi Gabbard’s position is right now in supporting Bernie Sanders.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/28/tulsi-gabbard-quits-dnc-support-bernie-sanders

Above is a link to the article in The Guardian that I copied and you can find below here:

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard quits DNC to support Bernie Sanders
Former vice-chair is an Iraq war veteran whose words come as a boost to the Vermont senator, who faces criticism over his lack of foreign policy experience.

Tulsi Gabbard: ‘It’s important for us to recognize the necessity to have a commander-in-chief who exercises good judgment.’

Alan Yuhas
@alanyuhas
Monday 29 February 2016 07.27 AEDT Last modified on Monday 29 February 2016 09.43 AEDT
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Representative Tulsi Gabbard resigned from her post as vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee on Sunday, in order to support Bernie Sanders in his run for the party’s presidential nomination.

Gabbard made the announcement on Sunday, appearing as a panel member on the NBC show Meet the Press.

“I think it’s most important for us, as we look at our choices as to who our next commander-in-chief will be, is to recognize the necessity to have a commander in chief who has foresight, who exercises good judgment,” she said.

Sanders suffered a serious loss to Hillary Clinton in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, with only 26% to Clinton’s 74% of the vote. Afterwards, speaking from Minnesota, where he flew from Texas to concentrate on states staging Super Tuesday primaries this week, he vowed to continue to carry the battle to Clinton.

“In politics on a given night sometimes you win, sometimes you lose,” he said. “Tonight we lost. I congratulate Secretary Clinton on her very strong victory. On Tuesday over 800 delegates are at stake and we intend to win many, many of them.”

He was more downbeat during his own appearances on the Sunday talk shows, telling the same NBC show: “Well, we got decimated. It was pathetic, from our perspective. But by the way, the glimmer of positive news for our group was we won the 29 and younger.”

Gabbard, 34, an Iraq war veteran and now representative for Hawaii, became the fourth member of Congress to endorse Sanders. She elaborated on her decision, by saying it stemmed from Sanders’ cautious foreign policy.

“As a veteran and as a soldier I’ve seen first-hand the true cost of war,” she said.

“I served in a medical unit during my first deployment, where every single day I saw first hand the very high human cost of that war. I see it in my friends who now, a decade after we’ve come home, are still struggling to get out of a black hole.”

Could foreign policy be Bernie Sanders’ undoing? Yes – if you believe the polls

“I think it’s most important for us,” she continued, “to recognize the necessity to have a commander-in-chief who has foresight, exercises good judgment, who looks beyond the consequences, looks at the consequences of the actions they’re looking to take, before they take those actions, so we don’t continue to find ourselves in these failures that have resulted in chaos in the Middle East and so much loss of life.”

Gabbard’s words will come as a boost for Sanders, who has faced criticism from Clinton and questioning from the media over his perceived lack of foreign policy experience.

On the campaign trail and the debate stage, the senator has pointed to his vote against the Iraq war – which Clinton, then a senator for New York, supported – as evidence of his pragmatism and caution on such key foreign policy issues.

He also highlighted another, more contemporary difference of opinion with the former secretary of state on Sunday: US military intervention in Libya, which Clinton strongly supported during the revolution against dictator Muammar Gaddafi there.

“These are terrible dictators, but you’ve got to be thinking about the day after,” Sanders said on NBC. “I would’ve done it differently if I were president of the United States.”

Pressed on how he would have acted, the senator said he “would’ve worked more patiently. I know it was a difficult situation, but you can’t just go thinking about regime change.”

He agreed, however, with President Barack Obama’s decision not to try to create a no-fly zone over Syria, another proposal supported by Clinton. Obama and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff have shied from this form of intervention for fears of entanglement and “unintended consequences”.

More news Topics
US elections 2016 Democrats Bernie Sanders US politics

What John Lord writes about today in AIM (Australian Independent Media) Network

I find this article by John Lord well worth reading

If you want to read it, please go to:

http://theaimn.com/day-to-day-politics-the-evil-priest/

John Lord says in his article: “Cardinal Pell in giving evidence to the Royal Commission into the abuse of children uttered two of the most debauched sentences ever spoken by an Australian cleric. . . .”

Further he says: “Is John Howard seriously suggesting that people such as these don’t speak out because of some sort of fear of political correctness? That’s the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard. . . . ”

And then there are some interesting observations by John Lord about “the Safe Schools programme” and the “Broadband policy”.

The following (John Lord’s thought for the day) is towards the end of his article.

My (John Lord’s) thought for the day:

‘Truth is pure yet fragile and requires delicacy in delivery. There are however times when it needs some diplomatic force to make it register’

Uta’s Diary, a Continuation from the 26th of February 2016

I reblogged on the 25th of February 2016 this article which has the title:

“CONDITIONS MASQUERADING AS DEMENTIA”

They say, that dementia and even Alzheimers can be controlled by adopting a very healthy life-style. Here is a link to that article.

https://auntyuta.com/2016/02/25/7-conditions-masquerading-as-dementia/

I said in my diary from the 26th of February that I wanted to come back to that article, which is written by health coach MARGIE KING. She says among other things “A new program from UCLA and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging offers new hope. In the first study of its kind, researchers have proved that natural therapies can not only slow the progress of dementia but can actually reverse it.”

This article is actually written by health coach MARGIE KING, She says among other things “A new program from UCLA and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging offers new hope. In the first study of its kind, researchers have proved that natural therapies can not only slow the progress of dementia but can actually reverse it.”

The UCLA protocol recognizes that dementia can have many causes and those causes are often reversible.

I copied the following from MARGIE KINGS’S article:

” . . . Sharp Again Naturally (www.sharpagain.org) is a non-profit organization formed in 2012 to educate the public and the medical community about the reversible causes of dementia.

Here are seven areas Sharp Again Naturally suggests you investigate before accepting a dementia or Alzheimer’s diagnosis. These are conditions that may cause memory loss and dementia but can be reversed.

1. Nutritional imbalances and deficiencies. Deficiencies of omega 3s, vitamisn B12, vitamin C, magnesium, selenium, probiotics, and other nutrients frequently cause symptoms of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Adhering to a balanced Mediterranean-style diet is associated with slower cognitive decline. It’s also linked to a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s.

Studies also show low vitamin D levels are linked to Alzheimer’s. Low folate (vitamin B9) may also lead to cognitive decline.

Adding coconut oil may rescue a brain from Alzheimer’s. And turmeric is known to boost working memory in just one dose.

2. Artificial food colors, flavors, and sweeteners. Artificial additives of all kinds may cause dementia symptoms.

Studies show the artificial sweetener aspartame impairs cognitive function and leads to memory loss.

3. Prescription medication side effects. Drugs, especially pain medications, and psychotropic drugs can severely disrupt cognition.

Statins are particularly harmful. In one study from the University of California – San Diego, 90 percent of patients who stopped taking statin drugs reported improvement in cognitive problems in a matter of weeks. In some of the patients a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer’s was reversed.

Another study showed that the sleep drug Ambien increased the risk of dementia in elderly patients.

4. Inflammation from low-level infections, mold, food allergies, and Lyme Disease. Inflammation is the body’s attempt to get rid of a toxic element or organism, and so it occurs in many different situations, even root canals and urinary tract infections.

Studies suggest that mental disorders result from neuroinflammation.

5. Stress and stagnation/inactivity. Stress elevates cortisol levels, leading to inflammation, and in turn to hormone imbalances, cognitive impairment, heightened blood sugar levels, hypertension, delayed healing time, and susceptibility to disease. The body’s self healing mechanisms depend on unimpeded flow of lymph, blood, and other fluids, all of which are promoted by exercise. Inactivity, by contrast, allows cellular shutdown and blockages, taxing the whole system and interfering with healing on every level.

One study showed that in patients younger than 65 years-old, 41% of dementia diagnoses were incorrect. Misdiagnosis occurred most frequently in patients with depression or alcohol abuse.

6. Thyroid and other hormonal imbalances. Many people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia simply have low levels of T3 thyroid hormone. However, standard thyroid tests completely miss T3 levels, and Synthroid (T4) doesn’t help. It is estimated that 10 to 15% of all nursing home residents may be there because of low T3.

7. Mercury and other heavy metal poisoning. So-called silver amalgam fillings contain 50 percent mercury, and that mercury is neither stable nor inert. It off-gasses, crosses the blood-brain barrier, and destroys neurons even without contact. Removing these fillings is hazardous unless done with mercury-safe protocols.

Annual flu shots are another source of these toxins. Research shows that people who took the flu shot for five consecutive years had 10 times or 1000 percent higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease than people who only had one or two flu shots due to the accumulation of mercury and aluminum in the vaccines.

Most doctors are not expert in these causes of dementia or how to treat them. Sharp Again Naturally is building a medical advisory board and a database to get the word out. It also offers help finding functional medicine specialists, naturopaths, or doctors who practice integrative medicine who are familiar with these areas.

Click here for more information on natural approaches to preventing and overcoming dementia.

The Marriage of Opposites

https://auntyuta.com/2016/02/07/charlotte-amalie/

“The Marriage of Opposites”, is an excellent title, I think. I had this book renewed by the library, but today is the day when it finally needs to be returned. The weeks vanish so quickly. I cannot believe, I’ve had this book for so many weeks. I just remembered, that I had intended to make a note about the different chapters in that book.

Chapter One starts in 1807. It is set in Charlotte Amalie, on the island of St. Thomas, and Rachel Pomie is the narrator. This Rachel did strike me straight away as a very interesting woman. Her relationship with her mother and father in her childhood reminds me a bit about the relationship that I used to have with my parents. I reckon, there are some similarities, but the outward circumstances are totally different to the way I grew up, namely I grew up in a very different place and in a very different time. Due to WW Two and the separation of my parents after the war, I saw my father overall not very often, whereas Rachel’s father always lived with the family . . . . Rachel is not at all the way her mother would like her daughter to be. Girlish things do not interest her at all, but she loves her father’s books and his conversations. Rachel’s father treats her as an intelligent person. This is how she becomes a fairly well educated woman.

The last chapter in the book, CHAPTER ELEVEN, starts in 1855. It is again set in Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas, and again Rachel by the name of Rachel Pomie Petit Pizarro is the narrator. 1855 is the year when she is determined to go to Paris to live there for the rest of her life. She goes on the sea voyage together with Jestine, her longtime friend from the islands who wants to join her daughter in Paris whom she has not seen since she had been kidnapped as a child. Rachel’s husband was going to come to Paris soon after. He first had to close up their business on the island.

Rachel soon feels very much at home in Paris. She goes on narrating her story in 1863. Alice Hoffman fictionalized the life of Rachel. But all the dates and instances are based on the life of Rachel Monsanto Pomie Petit Pizarro, who died in Paris in 1889 at the age of ninety-four. One of her sons was Camille Pissaro, the artist.

Here now I made some notes about the dates and various narrators in the CHAPTERS TWO to TEN of “The Marriage of Opposites”:

Chapter Two, 1818 Rachel (narrator)

Three, 1823 Rachel (narrator)

Four, 1824 Rachel (narrator)

Five, 1825 Abraham Gabriel Frederic Pizarro (narrator)

Six, 1826 Rachel (narrator)

Seven, 1841 Jacobo Camille Pizzarro (narrator)

Eight, Paris 1847 Lydia Cassin Rodrigues Cohen (narrator)

Nine, St. Thomas 1848 Jacobo Camille Pizzarro (narrator)

Ten, St. Thomas 1855 Camille Pizzarro (narrator)

During most of the book, Rachel is the narrator. The other narrators are the artist, Jacobo Camille (Rachel’s son), Frederic Pizzarro (her second husband) and Lydia, the daughter of Rachel’s friend Jestine, who had been kidnapped from Charlotte Amalie as a child and taken to Paris. When Jestine sees her daughter finally in Paris some twenty years later, the daughter is already married with three beautiful daughters!

Rachel had two marriages, a lot of children (many died early). She did like very much to spend time with her grand-children.

Aleppo: A Post by Bryan Hemming

If you want to find out a bit more about what happened recently in Aleppo, please go to the following link. Bryan Hemming raises in his post some interesting questions and observations. I wanted to reblog his post, but somehow the reblogging did not work. Still, if you go to the following link, you can find out very interesting information. The internet is a good thing for getting information from different sources.

https://bryanhemming.wordpress.com/2016/02/19/aleppo-the-corporate-media-credibility-gap/#comment-3385

Aleppo: The Corporate Media Credibility Gap

The following is a copy of just one paragraph from Bryan Hemming’s blog:

” . . . As Turkey’s Recep Erdoğan hardens his resolve to drag NATO into a war from which no winners can possibly emerge, his threats to world stability, following the latest Ankara bombing, are being virtually ignored by the corporate media. To look at headlines featured on the latest Guardian on-line front page, at the time of writing, you could be forgiven for thinking a news blackout has been imposed. . . .”

Where are the peace-makers?

http://theaimn.com/where-are-the-peace-makers/

Yesterday I published a copy of an article by the Australian Independent Media. Above is a link to another article from the AIM people that I also find very interesting. Following here is another link to some more AIM articles. Maybe you would like to have a look at this link too.

http://theaimn.com/

‘Baby Asha’ and Nauru protests held as hospital staff oppose transfer

These articles are from Guardian Australia!

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/australian-immigration-and-asylum

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/feb/13/baby-asha-and-nauru-protests-held-as-hospital-staff-oppose-transfer

Protests over the proposed return of “Baby Asha” to Nauru, the fate of 267 asylum seekers also facing removal, and Australia’s offshore processing regime in general, continued across the country on Saturday.

Refugee advocates gathered outside Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, where doctors have refused to discharge Asha because they do not believe Nauru will be a safe environment for her.

Meanwhile, the NSW conference of the Australian Labor party – which supports offshore processing – was picketed by demonstrators outside Sydney Town Hall.

And protesters placed 267 numbered paper dolls on the grass outside the north Brisbane office of the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, – one for each asylum seeker of the M68 cohort facing transfer to Nauru.

Included in the protest were 37 replica baby “onesies”, representing the 37 Australian-born children also facing removal.

The Guardian reported on Friday night that Asha – the Australian-born daughter of two asylum-seeker parents, who had first been taken to Nauru when five months old, faced a return there again, after receiving treatment for burns at the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital.

Asha was accidentally burned on Nauru when boiling water spilled on her.

She has been treated but hospital staff have refused to discharge her because they say Nauru is not a “suitable home environment”.

“As is the case with every child who presents at the hospital, this patient will only be discharged once a suitable home environment is identified,” the hospital said.

“All decisions relating to a patient’s treatment and discharge are made by qualified clinical staff, based on a thorough assessment of the individual, delivering the best outcome.”

The Nauru detention centre has been the site of consistent reports of abuse of asylum seekers, including physical and sexual assaults.

Doctors refuse to discharge ‘Baby Asha’ because of fears for safety on Nauru

Asha’s first transfer to Nauru in June last year resulted in her contracting gastroenteritis and suffering nutrition problems because her mother’s breastmilk failed. Before that, the government had been warned by Save the Children that the move could be “potentially catastrophic”.

The detention centre has been significantly upgraded since June last year, and has transitioned to an “open” centre.

Protesters have staged a vigil for Asha outside the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital since Friday night.

Addressing them on Saturday, Dr Richard Kidd of Doctors For Refugees said his organisation “absolutely supported” the stand of the hospital’s doctors.

He told Guardian Australia the immigration detention system was systemically flawed and “set up to harm people”, and that there had been consistent reports of children self-harming in detention.

“The evidence is incontrovertible that detention is terribly harmful for these children.”

Kidd said doctors were ethically bound, by their registration and their Hippocratic oath to “do no harm” and to ensure patients were not returned to dangerous situations.

“Doctors and nurses know that they cannot send a child back to a place where they face harm.”

Guardian Australia approached the department of immigration, as well as the office of Dutton, for comment on Friday night, and again on Saturday. There has been no response to questions.

Previously, Dutton has said he was “not going to send children back into harm’s way”.

But he has said the government must remain resolute over its policies regarding offshore processing and regional resettlement for “illegal maritime arrivals” in order to deter people-smuggling. Asha is classified as an “illegal maritime arrival”, despite being born in Australia, because of the immigration status of her parents.

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, a long-standing opponent of offshore processing, said she admired the doctors’ defiance of the government’s plans to remove Asha, which she described as “cruel madness”.

“All strength to the medical professionals at the Brisbane hospital for acting in the best interests of this child.

“The doctors know that discharging this baby would send her and her family straight to the dangers of indefinite detention on Nauru.”

Category: Copy