Stephan: I think this report should be taken very seriously. The Gallup Organization does high quality research that is databased. This explains why there is such a disconnect between the "good" news about job growth, and the actual experience people are reporting. This fraud is, of course, a creature of politics.
Credit: The Gallup Organization
Here’s something that many Americans — including some of the smartest and most educated among us — don’t know: The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading.
Right now, we’re hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is “down” to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.
None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job — if you are so hopelessly out of work that you’ve stopped looking over the past four weeks — the Department of Labor doesn’t count you as unemployed. That’s right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted […]
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Tuesday, February 17th, 2015
Claire Barry, - Eureka Alert
Stephan: Once again, in this report, we see that just a few corporations are responsible for most of the damage being done to a particular sector of the environment. There are seven billion people on the planet. We all suffer so that these corporations can make profit with no other priority a consideration. Does this seem fair to you?
Deforestation impacts indigenous peoples and, by changing the environment changes the climate. Greed and stupidity combined. Credit: environmentalassessmentandgis.wordpress.com
11th February, 2015, Oxford, UK: On the heels of a year marked by bold zero deforestation commitments the first ever comprehensive ranking of the powerbrokers that control the global supply chains that drive over half of tropical deforestation finds that only a small minority are equipped to tackle this problem. Deforestation and land use change cause more than 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, undermine regional water security, and threaten the livelihoods of more than one billion people worldwide.
Based on a rigorous methodology, and drawing on over 40,000 data points from public and private sources, the Global Canopy Programme has identified, assessed and ranked 250 companies, with total annual revenues in excess of US $4.5 trillion; 150 investors and lenders; 50 countries and regions; and 50 other influential actors in this space. Together, these 500 control the complex global supply chains of key ‘forest risk commodities’ such as soya, palm oil, beef, leather, timber, pulp and […]
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Tuesday, February 17th, 2015
Stephan: I didn't know any of this, and found it fascinating.
Ever wondered what it would feel like to slather a mixture of lamb’s fat and cannabis all over your naked body? The sensation was a familiar one to European women, once upon a time.
While the U.S. is only now starting to explore modern medical uses of marijuana, for centuries, women around the world have harnessed the magical green leaves to relieve pain, make sex better, and even attempt to manage STDs. The jury is still out on how safe and effective these remedies were, but perhaps they’ll inspire new research into cannabis’ potential today.
Here’s a quick tour through pot’s lesser-known history with the ladies.
Women rubbed pot on swollen breasts.
Weed has been used as a topical treatment for centuries. Back in the eleventh century, women used it to treat swollen breasts. The Old English Herbarium described the process as follows: “Rub [the herb] with fat, lay it to the breast, it will disperse the swelling.” Documents show the same method was used in nineteenth-century Germany and Austria, where cannabis was “laid on the painful breasts of women who have given birth.”
Tantric sex disciples drank pot ‘milkshakes.’
From about the seventh century onward, the use of […]
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Monday, February 16th, 2015
Stephan: The evidence as I have assessed it convinces me that within the paradigm of wellness great fortunes can and will be made. It is possible to take the compassionate and life-affirming option and make serious money. Here is an example of what I mean, and why I think this. It may seem esoteric but graphene is going to be a critical material as this century goes on.
Doctoral student KeLiang Wang places a graphene-coated electrode into a button cell to make a supercapacitor.
Credit: Emily Weber
Researchers from the South Dakota State University (SDSU) have used a pyrolysis process to transform plant materials such as corn stover, native grasses and dried distillers grain solids (DDGS) into bio-oil and biochar, which could then be converted into graphene.
The resulting product – graphene, is many times more valuable than the agricultural residue. Zhengrong Gu, an assistant professor at the SDSU agricultural and biosystems engineering department, states that the pyrolysis process converts the plant materials in
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