When you start caring about someone, it changes the whole dynamic of not just your relationship with them, but your relationship with yourself.

Let's break this down a bit. Say you care about someone. You care that they make it home safe. You care that they had a good day. You care that they smile.

You care about what they have to say. You care about their opinions. And here is the most important one - you care about their opinion of you.

Now it's interesting to note that as a child, you are taught not to care what others think of you - to do as you please, and to please yourself.

Yet that is the inverse of what happens when you care about someone else. So if we are taught to not care what others think of us, then aren't we being taught not to care about others?

You could say that is extreme - but let me assure you it is not as black and white as it may appear. Some people care more about people than others. Those that care the least about another's opinion of them, tend to care the least about people in general.

This isn't to say one overall careless person could not open their heart to a few individuals, but it would surely be more difficult than for someone more caring.

Of course, caring isn't the only factor - trust plays a very large role. In order to care about someone's opinion, you must first trust that person's judgment and ability to form a sound opinion.

An example. I was the little girl that "cared too much" about what others thought of me. I was also the one to walk up to a stranger and open a conversation. Inherently, I was very trusting and caring.

Einstein once said, "the most important question for man to answer is 'is the universe a friendly place?'" - I believe he is right.

When you believe the universe is a friendly place, you openly trust - and when you openly trust, you openly care. And that is perhaps what needs to happen in order for world peace to ever become more than an hopeless ideal.

So teach your children to care about others' opinions. Maybe then they can realize the peaceful happy world we've always wanted for our future generations.

A survey of the carnage: The Charlotte Observer will cut 123 jobs, or 11 percent of its workforce. The Miami Herald plans 250 job cuts, 17 percent of workers there. The Herald-Leader in Lexington, Ky. is dropping 17 positions. In Raleigh, N.C., the News & Observer is cutting a total of 70 jobs, 16 of them in the newsroom.

But not all will suffer equally. As the Lexington Newspaper Guild pointedly observed, McClatchy gave CEO Gary Pruitt an $800,000 bonus last year and just hired a new corporate vice president, even as the company's stock was spiraling downward...

911 Editors / 911Blogger

Ex-Congressman: U.S. Government Created Al-Qaeda, Involved In 9/11

Iraq: Turkey launches an attack,
Israel: Friday ritual of protesting the wall for three years,
UK: British army accused of abusing prisoners,
Cuba: First Person perspective on surviving with an embargo,
Mauritania: Refugees return after 20 years,
Every Woman looks at women around the world overcoming repression and abuse,
Egypt: Riz Khan on government transparency issues halting business growth,
Big problems with current ways of measuring economic success,
China: Clean rapping to get past government restrictions...

Russia: Fears Kosovo independence will set a precedent,
Tanzania: Hidden intentions to U.S. President Bush's visit,
Zimbabwe: Inflation at 66,000% due to printing more money,
Denmark: Arson and riots continue uncontrolled,
Thailand: Shooting massacres national morale,
India: Punjab dam plan stealing from citizens,
Afghanistan: Inside Story on possible NATO defeat,
US: Clip from "Zeitgeist" on the truth of Vietnam War,
Barcelona: Click takes a look at new mobile technology...

US Set to Use Spy Satellites on US Citizens

"A plan to use U.S. spy satellites for domestic security and law-enforcement missions is moving forward after being delayed for months because of privacy and civil liberties concerns. The plan is in the final stage of completion, according to a department official who requested anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about it. While some internal agencies have had access to spy satellite imagery for purposes such as assisting after a natural disaster, this would be the first time law-enforcement would be able to obtain a warrant and request access to satellite imagery."

Yogi Bear as metaphor for what happened to the world

John Kricfalusi provides examples that show how the quality of Yogi Bear depictions has kept pace with a general decline in the quality of Western culture over the years. (From left to right: 1960s, 1990s, 2000s) Link




via Wired

I Was a Sonic Blaster Guinea Pig

By Sharon Weinberger February 13, 2008 | 9:30:00 AMCategories: Lasers and Ray Guns, Less-lethal

Last week, I was sitting in a hotel bar in Jerusalem when a fellow passenger on my tour told me there was a guy with us selling a supposedly less-lethal weapon.

"It works with sound frequencies," he said. "It'll make you a sick."

A puke ray? An honest-to-God puke ray? Right here in Jerusalem?

Well, more like a sonic blaster. Dr. Maurice Goldman, a retired dentist, is the U.S. managing director for Inferno, a line of products that markets itself as a "sound barrier." The primary effect of the device, which sounds like a loud siren, is to force people to leave the protected area, he says. However, if the intruder doesn't leave immediately, Inferno's effects include "vertigo, nausea, and pain in the chest."






and I figured some people would like this - via Boing Boing

Psycho inspired bathroom

Framing Muslims in Turkey, Britain, Egypt and the Good Old USA

TIME magazine has finally put out an article that obliquely touches on False Flag terrorism;
Turkey Busts Alleged Murder Network
"...Veli Kucuk, a retired major general, was allegedly plotting to kill (Turkish author) Pamuk, Turkish newspapers reported. Kucuk is suspected of running a secret unit within police forces that carried out bombings and killings for which other groups were widely blamed. Also arrested was Kemal Kerincsiz, a nationalist lawyer responsible for numerous cases against Pamuk, Dink and other intellectuals. None of the suspects have spoken about the charges.

Ecotopias Aren't Just for Hippies Anymore — and They're Sprouting Up Worldwide

In the 1970s, environmental idealists had a vision of Ecotopia: Everyone recycled, there was no pollution, and we all worshipped trees and co-ops. Today's eco-communities are less crunchy and a lot more high tech. In addition to using renewable energy sources, these projects aim to limit their impact on surrounding ecosystems by building with green materials, promoting earth-friendly transportation, and recycling water and waste.

Fat People Cheaper to Treat, Study Says

By MARIA CHENG
AP Medical Writer

LONDON (AP) -- Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn't save money, researchers reported Monday. It costs more to care for healthy people who live years longer, according to a Dutch study that counters the common perception that preventing obesity would save governments millions of dollars.

[ More at Wired ]

Chad: Violence escalating,
Israel: The return of terror,
Mexico: Americans going across the border for medications,
Sri Lanka: Colomobo halts so protesters can march,
Iraq: Inside Iraq on very unstable situation,
Inside Story on real Iraqi death count,
US: Cheating to Live on deplorable health care system,
UK: Active plants signify fundamental weather shift,
One on One with serial entrepreneur Stelios Haji-loannou...

Lebanon: War report blames Israel military,
EU: International price gouging,
Kenya: Monasterial sanctuary,
Myanmar: Second revolutionary rising (yay monks!),
Pakistan: Riz Khan on what lies ahead,
Spain: People and Power on immigration fueled corruption,
Africa: GPS helps pygmies save home,
Author at Google on the "Mind of the Market"...

NH Diebold Voting Machines Hacked

NH Primary Sham Chain of Custody

Water Toxicity - Hydrofluorosilicic acid

To the City of Waterloo Council Members:

Fluoride is now everywhere.  It is in the air we breathe and in the food and beverages we consume.  It is impossible to eliminate our body?s systemic ingestion of fluoride.
 
"In 1997, the EPA estimated that Americans were ingesting nearly five times more fluoride than in 1971 - from food and drinks alone."
Smith G. 2001, Why Fluoride Is An Environmental Issue, Earth Island Institute, 22^nd meeting of the ISFR, August 24-27

Here is a list, not complete by any means, on the adverse health effects (click each title for ref. or go to www.waterloowatch.com to get the full reports):

Fluoride And The Brain
Fluoride And Cancer
Fluoride And Children
Fluoride And Dental Fluorosis
Fluoride And Hypersensitivity
Fluoride And Kidneys
Fluoride And Skeletal Fluorosis
Fluoride And Thyroid Function
Fluorosilicate Toxicity
Fluorosilicates Increase Blood Lead Levels

The above is bad enough, adding insult to injury, an untested industry waste product Hydrofluorosilicic acid which includes traces of arsenic and lead is being used to fluoridate the water - Fluoride also increases the up take of Aluminum and possibly other toxic metals!

Jan. 29, 1998: A Warning on Nicotine, Straight From the Horse's Mouth

By Tony Long 01.29.08 | 12:00 AM

RJ Reynolds CEO Steven Goldstone told the National Press Club on April 8, 1998, that Joe Camel had been officially deemed dangerous for the American public.
Photo: AP / Marquette

1998: A tobacco company executive admits for the first time, under oath, that nicotine is addictive and poses a health risk. He stops short of saying it can kill you.

Testifying before the House Commerce Committee, Steven Goldstone, then the CEO of RJR Nabisco ("RJR" originating with longtime cigarette-maker RJ Reynolds), agreed that nicotine is addictive, "under the way that people use the term today."

Egypt: Last day to get into Rafah,
UK: Child trafficking investigation,
Iraq: Neighborhood watch,
Turkey: Freedom of religion,
Kenya: Hacked to death or burned alive,
Cambodia: Deporting the problem,
Indonesia: Supreme Suharto justice,
Food giant to award diplomas,
Author at Google on how systems learn...

By Josh McHugh 01.18.08 | 6:00 PM

Sometime in the 1990s, the concept of better living through chemistry turned a corner, thanks to drug companies' efforts to synthesize antidotes for every possible mood swing. So writes Yale lecturer Charles Barber in his new book, Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation. An OCD sufferer himself, Barber spent a decade working in places like New York City's Bellevue Hospital. He knew something was wrong when he discovered that his colleagues' perfectly functional, $300-an-hour Upper West Side clients were taking the same potent pills as his own schizoid, homeless, crackhead patients. "I would spend part of the day in shelters dealing with seriously ill people," Barber says. "Then I'd go to cocktail parties and find out that the people there were on the same medications." He proposes that we just say no to multinational drug peddlers and heal ourselves with cognitive and dialectical behavioral therapies — "talk therapy" techniques that minimize pill pushing, dispense with Freudian dream analysis, and engage patients in actively reprogramming their own brains. It's like "a highly selective carpentry of the soul," Barber writes — therapy as self-engineering.

[ More at Wired ]





And now on RGTV News:

Kenya: Extreme escalation in violence,
Thailand: Religious school crackdown,
Israel: Hakeem passes but revolutionaries never die,
US: Sex offender signs,
India: Ayurvedic medicine,
UK: Scientists knocked out of Gemini project,
Satellite could fall to Earth,
How to protect yourself from being hacked...

The Art of Propaganda: 7 Common Tactics Used to Influence Behavior

Propaganda is created to influence the minds and actions of people, in order to generate a response that achieves the goal of the propagandist. Politicians and governments often use propaganda to obtain support/compliance for their policies.

Propaganda is similar to marketing/advertising in many ways, particularly in the way messages are selectively formulated to emotionally engage the recipient.

In a way, its quite easy to apply these devices to your promotional campaigns.

This doesn’t mean that you should deceive customers or readers by providing false or misleading facts but rather, that its useful to situate your marketing campaigns within frames which appeal to your audience’s interests.

Learning to Research vs. Learning to Think

Lots of interesting news today – the creation of so-called artificial life by the J. Craig Venter Institute, and an opinion piece in the Globe about research skills in the age of Google. And to me, (wouldn’t you know) the issues have an interesting, but complex, connection. (The other interesting piece of news, namely, the controversy over Canada’s military policy with respect to detainee transfer in Afghanistan and the government’s denial regarding knowledge of systemic torture, will wait for the next post.)

Let’s start with the research skills item. The column reports on a study conducted by the British Library in collaboration with University College London that,

...spent years poring over its online resources' visitor logs to determine how young users were behaving. They discovered that – surprise, surprise – kids might not make the best researchers, even with a Google assist.

“Digital literacies and information literacies do not go hand in hand,” the report says. “A careful look at the literature over the past 25 years finds no improvement (or deterioration) in young people's information skills.

Jan. 25, 1945: Fluoridation — Better Teeth, or Commie Plot?

1945: Grand Rapids, Michigan, becomes the first U.S. city to fluoridate its drinking water supply.

Fluoridation, implemented as a means of reducing tooth decay, involves adding one part per million of fluoride to the water supply. (The optimum level, according to the Centers for Disease Control, falls between 0.7 and 1.2 ppm.) Fluorine, of which fluoride is a compound, is one of Earth's most abundant elements, found in almost everything. In mammals, the highest natural concentration of fluoride is found in bones and teeth.

Clive Thompson on Why Sci-Fi Is the Last Bastion of Philosophical Writing

By Clive Thompson 01.18.08 | 6:00 PM

The answer Cory Doctorow offers in his novella After the Siege is that you'd get a brutal war. The wealthy countries that invented the original objects would freak out, demand royalties from the developing ones, and, when they didn't get them, invade. Told from the perspective of a young girl trying to survive in a poor country being bombed by well-off adversaries, After the Siege is an absolute delight, by turns horrifying, witty, and touching.