Topic: WE'RE STUFFED!!!

[tangerine dream]

By choosing your thoughts,
and by selecting which emotional currents you will release
and which you will reinforce,
you determine the quality of your Light.
You determine the effects that you will have upon others,
and the nature of the
experiences of your life.

~ Gary Zukav - from "Seat Of The Soul" ~
 

[Firestarter]

Guys, lets not fight over this. Its a simple mathematics that the world is going to hell in a handbasket thanks to corporate greed. We, the regular little people, lost the reigns and its very difficult to grab them back. They've got us by the balls and the earth is being destroyed. Greenhouse effect, global warming, overpopulation (and we can thank the church for some of this, they still wont say yes to birth control so folks in mexico have ten babies a family and starve). We are going to see more diseases, more storms. Would anyone like to have been in katrina? This, right now, is our wake up call.

What can we do about it? Not a whole hell of a lot but I would like to recommend to michael, since restless soma is a public forum, that we have a public section for the earth, like one where we write things about current events, and what is happening. So instead of doing  this in private, say some visitor comes by and opens their eyes to it. And does something. And it causes a boomerang effect. and write congressmen, the white house, some of these dudes have email, and let them know how you feel.

The internet and esp youtube has become a powerful medium where folks can express how they feel, and right now we're seeing many folks expressing themselves about the earth, the greed, and how we have to act on it now. It affected the polls and got obama elected, thats for certain. There are many more people who are paying attention, in the us esp after katrina and ike hit. But even folks who live in say, the southwest where im from KNOW the globe is getting hotter.

And while I do believe that the earth, like the sun and all planets are living entities, they are not the same as us. I believe that as they have their own consciousness, so do we, but thats the key, being 'conscious.' We really dont have time to fight on this issue. So im suggesting as stated, maybe discussing these issues in a public fora where more may read it.

I mean who knows, we could do that and post 2012 look back and some civilizations went under water, but wed see, hey, we at least tried to say something, did the best that we could, to get the word out, that earth was a living entity, and was gonna purge us cause we were acting like a cancer on the planet. Shes not gonna be selective in who is for her or against her, shes gonna just do whats in her nature and thats rage her storms and melt her ice and choke on all those emissions and toxins in the air.

Anyway its just an idea I had, anyone interested? Or do we just keep it in here the way it is?

[daphne]

Lori and Juhani... thank you for bringing a smile to my face this morning!

Carry on!!   

[Firestarter]

Feeding the frenzy is a far cry from pretending things don't exist.   There is an in-between.

I think what m was saying and I agreed on was that it's not necessary to add our energy to the hype and drama and fear out there.

Our thoughts create our World.  And words do even more so.

People with Power (Sorcerers)  shoud be responsible with their words and energies.

Lori, to add to this, both you and Juhani have points. its kinda like this I see it - we shouldnt stick our head in the sand, because we have REAL effects occuring cause of the greed and so forth. However, this can create FEAR which, on a collective conscious scale, can also possibly hail up storms and so forth. I do believe that the earth has her own consciousness, and our own collectively can contribute to it. I also accept chaos theory that one slight change in the configuration can change an effect. Just one change. So, it could be as simple as one prayer out which can stop a storm. Like when I found that spider web, and I saw that bumper sticker of texas backed up, I destroyed the web. Now, I know in logical terms, first attention, it might seem rather grandiose that I could destroy a hurricane by taking out a funnel spider web (remember it was a funnel spider web and the texas bumper sticker backed up near it). However, in sorcerers terms at second attn level, anything is possible, so I heard the voice to destroy the web and did it. Now, Ike didnt kill others like katrina, not as bad tho did kill folks, but wherre it was the size of the gulf preceding, it lost some size along the trail, it could've been worse. That was my contribution, probably amass many other prayers the whole thing wouldn't be so destructive to the whole globe.

However, its gonna take more effort, really a combo, than just plain sorcery because as it stands, due to the nature of the planet, while sure anything is possible, the crisis of the globe may be beyond sorcery. We may be able to power up and stop a storm, or hurricane or volcano and so forth. But the earth temp still rises and we still are plunging down for oil, and burning the gases, we're still doing the same things. We have YET to cut back on the cycle we're going. We havent made the necessary changes we need to make. It may or may not be too late, we dont know. I hope its not. But with things like even overpopulation, we're not going to be able to feed the world. we may be on our last legs as human beings.

[tangerine dream]

I don't think I ever said just plain sorcery was going to change the way the world is.   My comment is to be wise in the way we use our words.
 

Lori and Juhani... thank you for bringing a smile to my face this morning!

Carry on!!   

You are welcome Daphne, though I am quite serious on this matter.  It's an important one.

And while I do believe that the earth, like the sun and all planets are living entities, they are not the same as us. I believe that as they have their own consciousness, so do we, but thats the key, being 'conscious.' We really dont have time to fight on this issue. So im suggesting as stated, maybe discussing these issues in a public fora where more may read it.

Ellen,  this is a great idea and maybe you've noticed that many of us are doing this already. 

[tangerine dream]

The moment you can explain in your own words how exactly are your thoughts creating or un-crating the flu in your world, I might take you seriously.

  I have never claimed I could uncreate a flu.

[Michael]

[Michael]

[tangerine dream]

LOL

Love you Micheal.  Have a great vacay!
 

[Firestarter]

I don't think I ever said just plain sorcery was going to change the way the world is.   My comment is to be wise in the way we use our words.
 


You are welcome Daphne, though I am quite serious on this matter.  It's an important one.


Ellen,  this is a great idea and maybe you've noticed that many of us are doing this already. 

Oh Ive noticed it, esp at GG. But not at rs, not enough. So I pm'ed michael about opening up a new section at restless soma called Awareness of Planet Earth. Im more than willing to contribute various things about the earth and it being a living entity. I think since earth day just passed it would be a good time. So it would be a bit like this one, this thread, but it would be more geared toward awareness and track upcoming changes. Id also like to see the warnings of the elders in it, like the hopi and the incas. I can kinda bring some of my arizona knowledge from that one, so we'll see if hes game to open a section. But of course addrress how fear can add to the collective as well. We dont want to be fearful, but not ignorant either. After all the elders 'warned' us for a reason so they wanted us to fear a bit about the direction we were going. No prophecy is really carved in stone, we still have choices we can make. Course this is a global choice which is where it gets tricky. But at least we can make our mark in a public sector that way. (even if michael will follow with funny cartoons). lol

[Firestarter]

Confirmed number of global flu cases jumps to 331

NEW: United States' confirmed cases jump to 141, CDC says

WHO: Largest outbreak of the virus is in Mexico, with 156 confirmed cases

Virus has spread to 11 countries, with hardest hit areas in Western hemisphere

WHO: No sustained human-to-human transmission outside the Americas


updated 15 minutes agoNext Article in Health »


 Read VIDEO PHOTOSEXPLAINERMAP
     
(CNN) -- The number of people confirmed to have been infected with the H1N1 virus stands at 331, the World Health Organization said Friday.

 
Tourists sunbathe wearing surgical masks in the popular Mexican resort of Acapulco.

 1 of 3 more photos »  The virus, commonly known as swine flu, has spread to 11 countries, but the hardest-hit areas were in the Western hemisphere, the organization said.

"We have not seen sustained human-to-human transmission anywhere outside the Americas region," said WHO spokesman Thomas Abraham.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday it had confirmed 141 cases of the flu, in 19 states, and one person has died.

Meanwhile, a WHO official said Friday there is "no doubt" that a swine flu vaccine can be made in a relatively short period of time.

"Of course we would like to have a vaccine tomorrow. We would have wanted to have it yesterday," said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research.

"The reality is that from the time the potentially pandemic virus is identified, it takes between foue and six months to have the first doses of vaccine coming out of the factory and being available for immunizing people."

The largest outbreak of the virus was in Mexico, which had 156 confirmed cases, according to the WHO. It added that Mexico had nine deaths attributed to the virus.

However, Mexican officials said the death toll had risen to 12 and they suspect more than 150 deaths in the country are linked to the virus.  Watch how Mexican authorities are dealing with the outbreak »

Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova Villalobos said Thursday that the country has more than 300 confirmed cases of the virus, a higher number than the WHO reported Friday.

Despite the jump in confirmed cases, a senior WHO official said Thursday that the higher totals did not necessarily mean the incidence of the disease is increasing. Dr. Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of WHO, said it could be more to do with health investigators getting through their backlog of specimens.

The latest tally was announced two days after WHO raised the pandemic threat level to 5 on a 6-step scale.  Watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta demystify pandemics »

The level 5 designation means widespread human infection from the outbreak that originated in Mexico has been jumping from person-to-person with relative ease.

"It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic," said Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO's director-general. "We do not have all the answers right now, but we will get them."  View images of responses in U.S. and worldwide »

In addition to Mexico and the United States, WHO said, the following countries have confirmed nonlethal cases: Austria, Canada , Germany, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

An additional 230 cases are being investigated in the United Kingdom, and Spain has 84 suspected cases. Australia, which has had no confirmed cases, was investigating 114.  See where cases have been confirmed »

In the United States, the CDC said cases had been confirmed in 19 states.

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"This is a rapidly evolving situation, a situation with uncertainty," acting CDC Director Richard Besser said at a news conference Thursday.

New York has the most confirmed cases, with 50, followed by Texas, with 28. California has 13 cases.

The state health departments in Delaware, Colorado, Georgia, Nebraska and Virginia on Thursday said they had confirmed cases: four in Delaware, one in Georgia and two each in Colorado, Nebraska and Virginia. California state officials said they had two new confirmed cases Thursday and Florida's health department said it sent three samples it can't identify to the CDC. Their counts have not been added to the national total.  Go behind the scenes at the CDC »

"There are many more states that have suspected cases and we will be getting additional results," Besser said.

There still is just one confirmed death from the virus in the United States. A toddler from Mexico died at a Houston, Texas, hospital Monday.

As the virus spread to more people, officials took precautions.

Nearly 300 schools with confirmed or possible H1N1 cases were closed Thursday, affecting about 169,000 students, the U.S. Department of Education reported. No colleges or universities were known to be closed, the agency said.

Nowhere in the world is the crisis more severe than in Mexico, where the first cases were detected.

All schools have been closed throughout the nation, and the Mexico City government has shut down most public venues and ordered restaurants to serve only take-out food. That has affected about 35,000 businesses.

Department of Homeland Security Director Jane Napolitano asked parents of children whose schools closed to keep the children at home instead of taking them out in public -- where the flu could continue to spread.

"The entire purpose is to limit exposure," she said. "If a school is closed, the guidance is and the request is to keep your young ones home."

The Mexican federal government will close all nonessential government offices and businesses starting Friday.

The virus is a contagious respiratory disease that affects pigs and can jump to humans. Symptoms include fever, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.  Learn about the virus »

But the 2009 H1N1 virus is a hybrid of swine, avian and human strains, and no vaccine has been developed for it.

Ecuador joined Cuba and Argentina in banning travel to or from Mexico. Egypt began culling all pigs Thursday although there have been no reported cases of swine flu in that country.

China and Russia have banned pork imports from the United States and Mexico, though the WHO says the disease is not transmitted through eating or preparing pork.


Amidst the anxiety, health officials tried to tamp down concerns.

"When you think pandemic, people tend to reflect on the pandemics from years past," said Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent. "A lot has changed. We are better taking care of people in hospitals, we have antiviral medications. It doesn't mean everyone's going to die."

[Firestarter]

On a side note, I feel bad for folks in Mexico that they cant celebrate Cinco de Mayo this year.

[Firestarter]

Forest Service closes caves to stop bat fungus
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Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print  AP – FILE - In this Jan. 2009 file photo, Scott Crocoll holds a dead Indiana bat in an abandoned mine in Rosendale, … By BRIAN FARKAS, Associated Press Writer Brian Farkas, Associated Press Writer – 5 mins ago

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The U.S. Forest Service is closing thousands of caves and former mines in national forests in 33 states in an effort to control a fungus that has already killed an estimated 500,000 bats.

Bats have been dying at alarming rates from what scientists call "white-nose syndrome," so-named because it appears as a white powder on the face and wings of hibernating bats.

The problem was first spotted in New York and within two years has spread to caves in West Virginia and Virginia. There's no evidence the fungus is harmful to people.

Researchers believe the fungus is spread from bat to bat, but they have not ruled out the possibility that humans tromping from cave to cave might help to transmit it on their shoes and equipment, said Dennis Krusac, a biologist with the service's Southern region.

"We don't have the answers at this point," he said. "If we have answers in a year or sooner, we can open them back up."

Forest Service biologist Becky Ewing said an emergency order was issued last week for caves in 20 states from Minnesota to Maine. A second order covering the Forest Service's 13-state Southern region should be issued later this month.

The sites will be closed for up to a year, she said.

The orders follow a March request by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for people to voluntarily stay out of caves in 17 states.

Biologists are concerned the fungus could wipe out endangered Indiana, Virginia and Ozark big-eared and gray bats.

Bats play a key role in keeping insects such as mosquitoes under control. Between April and October, they usually eat their body weight in bugs per night. The loss of 500,000 bats means 2.4 million pounds of bugs aren't eaten in a year, Ewing said.

New York caver Peter Haberland said organized caving groups shouldn't object to the closures.

"For a period of a year, most people can deal with that," said Haberland, who serves on the Northeastern Cave Conservancy's board.

He said the order should have little effect in the Northeast since just a few national forests there offer caving and many caves are on private property.

Peter Youngbaer, white nose syndrome liaison for the National Speleological Society, another caving group, said education will be key because many people who explore caves don't belong to organized groups.

"There is a huge concern," he said. "The recreation aspect is probably the least of our concerns."

The Forest Service order says people caught in a cave or mine face up to six months in jail and fines of up to $10,000. Ewing said Forest Service officials will enforce the bans.

Youngbaer said he isn't convinced humans help transmit the fungus, which kills the bats because it affects their hibernation habits, causing them to starve.

A study based on soil samples taken from 200 sites in 30 states should help resolve that question.

"There is no question that it's spreading bat to bat and spreading from bat to bat rapidly," he said. "If it turns out the fungus is living in the caves anyway ... humans moving around doesn't mean anything."

Many of the caves in question are in the 919,000-acre Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia, which this week announced it would extend a ban imposed last year that only affected caves considered to be at high risk for the fungus.

On Friday, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources moved to close caves on state-owned property until April even though the disease has not been found in Indiana.

Last month, officials closed all of the caves in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Krusac said the orders do not affect commercial caves on private property.

Officials in the Ozark National Forest are debating whether to impose restrictions on wild cave adventures on the forest's Blanchard Springs Caverns.

[Firestarter]

Now see, losing bats would suck because one of the main feasts for them is mosquitos, which mosquitos carry a lot of diseases and stick their noses into skin. So they actually do a service in their existence. Even if people think of them like flying rats and are creeped out by them, losing bats means more mosquitos and more spread of diseases potentially in the future.

[tangerine dream]

Now see, losing bats would suck because one of the main feasts for them is mosquitos, which mosquitos carry a lot of diseases and stick their noses into skin. So they actually do a service in their existence. Even if people think of them like flying rats and are creeped out by them, losing bats means more mosquitos and more spread of diseases potentially in the future.

Bats are awesome!!  Very cute, I love them to death~!