The Poker Nightcap

What do the young people of Humboldt County do after leaving high school and college? Some can’t wait to leave, and others want to stay but aren’t satisfied with the job opportunities, or lack thereof, in this place they’ve known as “home”.

The real question is — how do they perceive the options available: minimum wage retail sales, join a branch of the U.S. Military, the family farm, or just hanging out with their friends who are in the same situation.

Some, through their own entrepreneurial activities, see options for working from home or for business opportunities in their own community. Most however, are just glad to have found a good job somewhere, and “somewhere” usually isn’t Humboldt County even though leaving home isn’t what they really want.

The editor William Vitek says in his essay, Community And The Virtue Of Necessity, “What keeps a community together is the inability of its members to leave, either because of the dangers that lie outside the community–a forbidding desert or an enemy clan, for example–or the ties that lie within the community–traditions, laws, fear of being cast out, rejected, or destroyed.” In recent times that has been mitigated (or weakened) by technology: automobiles, telephones, outside investments, ties to state and federal assistance programs, but some people do not feel that they can ever leave and continue a constant cycle of struggling with finding a means for economic security.

For many of Humboldt County’s residents, their identities are heavily intertwined with their community. The importance placed on where they live and what keeps them there (other than “we can’t just move the farm”) seems to be the tranquility, the natural beauty, the perceived lack of crime, and most importantly, the people and relationships.

To prevent the loss of our productive population and the slow death of many of Humboldt County’s smaller communities, as we’ve seen happen with all too many, we have an enormous responsibility to make this place matter enough for our young talented people to want to stay or return after attending college elsewhere. By garnering our connection to the technological age and educating our youth about the unlimited entrepreneurial possibilities technology offers, we provide opportunity and a mechanism for our youth to succeed. Having a job that makes use of the skills acquired in college would be an important step in keeping them here and luring those who’ve left back home.

While technology and the Internet alone may not revive an entire community, it can provide a good income in places where there are few traditional new jobs. Some good examples are: the GIS expert working from home in Hilo, Hawaii; pack goat supplies in Weippe, Idaho; the Tionesta students selling digital stories; the small ISP in Imperial, Nebraska; the future Spanish language institute being formed in Elsa, Texas; and the marketing of fine wood products in Orofino, Idaho.

A lot of us came here to escape citified life, to lose ourselves in a less populated territory. We strive to balance old traditions with our perceived understanding of the world beyond the Redwoods. That world is focused on the technological age. That world is focused on rapid changes. Along with our desire to remain removed from metropolitan mania, the fact is that economics factor into the equation and we now know that Humboldt County, in order to survive, must jump on board the technology train so that people here will be able to participate in education, economic pursuits . . . . the American way of life, without having to leave home.

Technology development is absolutely crucial to include in any economic planning. Just as it was unthinkable a century ago to plan for new enterprises without considering electricity, 21st century economies, whether national or village level, must include networked information technology. It is difficult to imagine how a town, county, company, state, region, can compete against, or work effectively with counterparts unless they are networked and much of the populace is conversant with the technologies.

It’s been proven that technology changes people’s lives. It lessens a person’s isolation, businesses large and small can be run from home using a web server and low cost tools and services developed for just such a market, and electronic tools can help bind groups together in order to get a project completed much faster than using only the phone and postal mail for communication.

Doesn’t it also stand to reason that advanced technology brings new business to Humboldt County, that e-commerce can revitalize “main street” by increasing small business revenue resulting in lower failure rates, that it will make it possible for more young people to return home after college, and that it will transform the way we citizens relate to and form our government?

Jill St Claire, Founder JSC Marketing, LLC www.DIGITAL-RETURNS.com jill@jscmarketing.com 1.888.435.5156

This past week, TCICommercial.com has announced they are giving away online webserver space for Licensed Commercial Real Estate Brokers.

For Licensed Commercial Real Estate Brokers, marketing their properties to their target market has been an ongoing struggle. This past week TCICommercial.com (the commercial side of TheCreativeInvestor.com) has announced they are giving away 1MB of online storage space for photo and files for Commercial Real Estate Brokers.

Brokers can advertise an unlimited amount of properties into TCICommercial.com, they are only limited by disk space usage. This means even if they wanted to advertise 1000 properties, they can do so, but if they wanted to attach photos or files, they would need to purchase additional server space. Additional online server space starts at $4.99/m.

“Currently Commercial Brokers use their own websites to market their own properties, the problem is that they aren’t using the full power of the Internet. By incorporating TCI’s database power, brokers can really organize all the properties that they manage and display them more effectively.” says Joel Webb, CEO of TCICommercial.com.

In addition to free file storage, brokers can add in their entire office of co-workers and download HTML code to bring the offices property listing into their own website. This creates one central area for properties to be added, and multiple areas the properties can be displayed at.

“At many of our competitors, this HTML property code import is at least a $100/m service charge, by having TCI give this service away for free, Commercial Brokers are more willing to do business with us than our competitors” stated Webb.

Within 3 years, TheCreativeInvestor.com has become one of the largest online communities focused on real estate investing. The website networks brokers, property managers and investors together for one common goal, to do more real estate deals through creative strategies.

For more information, please visit their website at: http://www.thecreativeinvestor.com/commercial

A Plasma HDTV or a LCD Television – Is this your dilemma? This is a rather difficult and complicated comparison between two technologies that process the image in a totally different manner.

This article highlights the pros and cons of plasma versus LCD as applicable to a television display. It also presents a set of guidelines to help you determine where either of these two flat panel display technologies fit best.

Plasma or LCD – Which type of display is right for you?

Though both LCD and plasma displays come in the form of slim flat panel displays, yet from a technology perspective, these two flat panel displays process the image in a totally different manner.

Plasma uses a matrix of tiny gas plasma cells that are charged by precise electrical voltages to emit light and hence to create the picture image. Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) panels – work by trapping a liquid crystal solution between two sheets of polarized glass. When an electric current is passed through the liquid crystals, they change the polarization of the light passing through them in response to the electric voltage – as a result of which, more or less light is able to pass through the polarized glass on the face of the display.

It is not the scope of this article to go into the actual details of how these different display technologies process the image – after all, what really matters is not what is going behind the screen but rather how these different display technologies perform as a television screen. At the same time, it is worth taking note that it is these same differences that gives each of these display technologies, its strengths and weaknesses, and that therefore renders one more suitable than the other in certain circumstances.

The list below highlights the most important differences between these two flat panel display technologies:

Size: For the time being, collision between plasma television and LCD TV occur in the 40 to 50 inch screen range. In reality, LCD TVs top out at around 45″ – meaning that for bigger screen sizes, a plasma display is your only real option if what you are after is a direct-view TV system. On the other hand, at the smaller end of spectrum, namely 15″ to 36″ TVs, LCD is the way to go if what you want is something stylish and slim (at under 4-inches in depth).

Picture Quality, Contrast and Color Saturation: Both plasma and the latest TFT-LCD flat panel displays are capable of producing excellent picture quality – with bright, crisp clear images.

However, plasma flat panel displays are more suitable for basic home theater usage than LCD. The gas cell structure within a plasma display is such that there is no light leaking between adjacent cells (or pixels). This renders plasma displays capable of displaying deeper blacks – hence better contrast and detail in television and movie scenes where lots of dark and light content is shown simultaneously.

In comparison, the nature of LCD technology – where a backlight shines through the LCD layer – means that it is hard for it to achieve true blacks (i.e. true absence of light) as there is always some light leakage from adjacent pixels.

This does not mean that LCD panel s are not suitable as TV screens; today’s LCD TV sets make use of extreme high contrast panels that are capable of displaying deeper blacks, yet the latest plasma TV sets still have a slight edge over LCD when it comes to contrast levels.

The situation is somewhat similar when it comes to color saturation. Again, it is the different display structure between LCD and plasma that is the reason behind the difference between the two technologies in this respect, and though both are capable of handling color in an exceptional manner, yet plasma displays still lead in this respect – producing more accurate and vibrant colors. Viewing-angle:Plasma Television sets – like their CRT TV counterpart – typically have better viewing angles than LCD. The viewing angle represents how far one can sit on either side of the screen away from the center, without experiencing significant deterioration in picture quality – mainly as a result of color shifts and reduced contrast.

Though recent developments in LCD technology means that this is less of an issue with some of the latest LCD TV sets boosting a viewing angle of 160 to 170 degrees vertically and horizontally, yet it is always best to check. The tendency – especially with cheaper sets – is that the deterioration in picture quality is more accentuated with LCD than with plasma displays.

Burn-In: As with all phosphor-based displays, plasma displays are prone to burn-in, or image retention. Screen burn-in occurs when an image is left for too long on the screen – resulting in a ghost of the image burned on the screen. Surely, keeping the brightness and contrast levels down will help reduce the risk of burn-in.

While some brands of plasma displays are more prone than others to burn-in, yet in general, plasma screens are more prone to suffer permanent burn-in during their first 200 hours of use; the reason being that fresh phosphors burn more intensely as they are ignited.

Technically speaking, burn-in is the result of a damaged pixel, whose phosphors has been prematurely aged and therefore glows less intensely than those of surrounding pixels. The presence of a static image for more than half-an-hour is enough to cause temporary burn-in; temporary burn-in or image ghosting, should not be cause for alarm as normally this will wash out after several hours of use.

Worst still is the prolonged presentation of static displays, such as the use of black or gray bars to view a 4:3 picture in its original format on a wide screen display; this will result in a permanent burn-in. Once permanent burn-in occurs, the damaged phosphors cannot produce the same levels of light output as the other phosphors around them do. In these circumstances, an LCD display may be a better choice. Viewing distance: It seems that the pixel size and shape of an LCD panel renders a smoother picture than an equivalently sized plasma panel for the same pixel count.

This means that even if your viewing distance falls within the recommended distance of approximately twice the screen width, if this is less than at least nine feet, most probably you will be better off with an LCD TV.

Life-time: The rare gases used in plasma display panels have a life and will fade over use. Earlier plasma TV sets had a quoted half-lifetime of between 20,000hrs, following which the image brightness will fall to half its original value. However, the latest plasma displays can boost anything between 30,000 and 60,000 hours. On the other hand, LCD displays have a guaranteed lifetime of between 50,000hrs and 60,000 hours. This degradation in image brightness takes place gradually over time.

Now, the average household in the US replaces their TV set every 7 years. Taking a conservative figure of 30,000 hours for either technology, this corresponds to well over 6hrs usage a day – every day – for over a period of 14 years! In other words, both plasma and LCD displays are extremely stable and reliable devices. This means that life-time should not be an issue with either display technology.

At the same time, keep in mind that there is no way to re-generate the gases in a plasma display or to repair any ‘dead’ pixels in an LCD display – the only option in such circumstances will be to replace the display.

Response: Some LCD panels – especially on older generation models – had a tendency to blur images particularly during fast moving scenes in movies and sports. However, recent advancement in LCD technology means that response times are such that there is no noticeable difference in performance between LCD and plasma TV sets in this regard.

Power requirements: The advantage here goes to LCD panels as these consume less electricity. Estimates show that the use of LCD panels can result in some 30% power savings for the same screen size than plasma display.

Price: Price is always a big issue when it comes to choosing your TV display. Although prices online vary considerably, yet LCD TV sets tend to be more expensive than Plasma Televisions. The main reason behind this price gap is that the production process for plasma technology still supports a better yield and thus carries a pricing advantage – especially at the large screen end of the market.

This contrasts heavily with LCD display technology where an estimate 30 to 40 per cent of all manufactured panels will have to be discarded as a result of defects leading to what are known as ‘bad-pixels’.

Making the Choice:

There is a market for both plasma and LCD displays – Plasma gives you a bigger screen for your dollar, deeper blacks, but then LCD do not suffer from burn-in and at the smaller end of the market (less than 40-inch screen size), LCD is your only way forward if you want something slim and stylish.

It is all a question of knowing what are the advantages and limitations of each with respect to your specific needs.

(c) 2004/2005 www.practical-home-theater-guide.com. All rights reserved.

Temperature monitoring systems can be and are used in many places, but in some cases they are only minor gadgets – useful, but not vital. This is quite different in Medicine, especially when vaccine or medicine storage is involved. Most vaccines have to be stored in freezers and refrigerators and must have temperature alarms systems installed. Why is that? Aren’t the standard sets of thermometers enough?

In most cases, the answer is “no”. There are two main reasons why temperature alarms and monitoring systems are necessary. One reason is purely bureaucratic, but the other is utterly practical.

First, it is more than common that temperature-monitoring systems are installed because of various federal or state regulations. They dictate installation of temperature alarms systems in refrigerators and freezers where certain medical products are stored. In some cases regulations can require documenting the storage temperature, so memory functions (or chart recorders) will be necessary additions to all temperature monitoring systems you might have.

The second reason is much simpler, yet at least as important as the first one – temperature alarms systems make sure that you will know about any possible problems or freezers’ breakdowns as soon as they happen. This insures that the inventory stored is protected. If the temperature should fluctuate you need to be immediately notified so that it can be corrected. Too high or too low temperature can render some medicines and vaccines unusable and even dangerous to the recipient.

A good temperature alarm system will not only alert you if temperatures move outside the safe range but will also provide a temperature history chart so that you can properly trouble-shoot the problem.

(GPS) Global Positioning Systems – The World Grows Smaller

Gary Mialocq, Ph.D.

As a young child in the first grade not long after the end of WW2, I remember looking at a globe in the classroom and seeing “Unexplored Territory” in several places. Well, times have certainly changed. Now, with the new technology, GPS, it is becoming very difficult to get lost.

GPS, or global positioning system, is a tool that is used to measure distance and to help pinpoint location any place in the world. The fact is that it is an excellent tool that can do so much more than just tell you where you are. And, it is being used in everything from heart rate monitors to automobiles. This is amazing technology.

There are 24 satellites orbiting the earth at various locations at an altitude of 12,000 feet. They are always transmitting information through digital radio signals that tell the transmitters where they are and the exact time. They are so precise that they transmit time to the billionth of a second in accuracy.

Although first developed by the Department of Defense for military purposes, the GPS has found its way into society with many non-governmental functions. Let’s examine a few:

Automobiles. You can use this system to drive from one location to another without getting lost. it can help to track a car that has been stolen. It works by transmitting data to the satellite receivers that are then sent to the authorities. Within seconds, you can know your car’s location. It can also be of great help in emergency situations. The transmitted information can be sent to the authorities to alert them that you are in trouble. GPS jumps in and helps to find your location. Many vehicles are now being outfitted with this as standard equipment.

GPS devices are now use for recreational uses for the outdoor sportsman such as camping, hiking, hunting, fishing, or boating and can be an excellent way to make sure that you don’t get lost.

Companies are putting GPS to use as well. It virtually eliminates moonlighting with company vehicles. It reduces accidents and lowers insurance premiums by promoting safe employee driving habits and even creates reports of miles driven by each vehicle.

Think your spouse if being unfaithful? Don’t hire a high priced private investigator. These devices work so well because they are covert. Some are small enough to hide in a purse or in the car. There now have cell phones equipped with GPS devices. Not only can you locate someone right now, but you can also pull up a history of where the unit has been.

In summary, you won’t be finding any more maps as I did as a child marked “Unexplored territory”. GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEMS

Stewart advocates an open relationship with third party software providers so he can keep his service levels high and provide support to his installed base. “I’m happy to see an improving relationship with software providers that allow us to identify integrations issues and advise the customer,” says Stewart. “Customers grow weary of tight integration processes and the trouble they cause, both in cost and time, is unacceptable.” He also sees an evolving open standard developing across the industry that is helping ERP companies and third party providers alike. “The architecture is changing and integration is becoming easier,” says Stewart. “We are much more in the loop when it comes to upgrades and changes in software, including being invited to conferences and having access to design teams when necessary.”

The November issue of The Manufacturer reviewed Bolt-on Solutions. It noted, some boutique ERP providers cautiously embrace the bolt-on model. “Our software supports engineering intensive companies,” says Chuck Stewart, founder and executive vice president of Cincinnati, OH-based Encompix, an ERP provider for companies in the engineer to order, make to order, and project management industries. “Sometimes there is functionality that is needed where it makes sense to use a bolt-on application. We don’t want to reinvent.” Stewart uses the example of project management software as a realistic bolt-on application. “Microsoft Project is an industry standard and most, if not all, of our customers use it. It behooves us to make sure that it integrates easily into our ERP system.” It is an application that Stewart has no desire to reinvent.

Encompix has filled the manufacturing software requirements of Engineer-to-Order companies since 1992. The company name reflects the commitment to developing business application solutions that encompass the complex areas of project-based and job-based manufacturing.

Encompix www.encompix.com Roger Meloy 513-733-0066

# # #

What Do We Tell Our Children?
or
Little Pitchers Have Big Ears

In the last few days, be it on a TV interview, a call in program, at a meeting or a consultation, people ask variations of the following questions. “What do we tell our children about the bombing? Shall we keep it a secret? Shall we wait with the little ones until they ask? After all they don’t know the difference, anyway.” They say. “At what age can they comprehend what has happened? Won’t it scare them to talk to them?”

Adults often forget that children have ears. They make the mistake of believing that if a child isn’t told about an event, he or she won’t know what you don’t want him or her to know. Remember your own youth. Didn’t you learn almost everything your parents didn’t want you to? Children pick up secrets like sponges. And, if you don’t tell them your version, they will fill in the blanks with mixed-up stories of their own.

Very young children don’t know the difference between reality and fantasy. One burning building looks like another, one they have seen in the movies or on television or even a cartoon. But, depending upon how it is presented to them, children of about three can begin to differentiate fact from fiction.

During a crisis such as the one we are undergoing, be it war or a terrorist situation, the most important thing an adult can do is to tell simple truths calmly. I don’t care if you have to go to the bathroom and throw up because you are so upset. Remain calm and steady with your young children (and instruct their teachers to do the same). If your children feel safe with you, they will have a much better chance of managing to decipher the mélange of facts and images bombarding them. It is a mistake to try to hide what is happening from any child that asks about an event or what they see on television or hear at school or in the street. Over the age of three, something must be said, even if they don’t ask.

Older children need to be included in conversations even more than young ones. For them, because they do understand, about hijacked planes and deaths in a burning building, they are afraid. It is OK if they know you have feelings too. As long as you remain the adult and don’t cling to your children to make you feel better. Treat them as individuals who can think and feel. Be honest with them. It may prevent nightmares and other unhelpful ways children have of handling their anxieties.

Gather your loved ones around you, touch them, hold them, and talk. Under stress, it is important to reach out and to communicate. Even those of you of superman or wonder woman orientation must talk to your spouse, your partner, your friends, your religious mentor, a crisis hot line, a therapist, or any combination of the above. Without appropriately letting out your own feelings, you can compromise your immune system and eventually get ill. Don’t risk it. You owe it to yourself to remain healthy — for your own sake and for those you love.

The following is an insightful communication I received from a colleague. I hope you find it helpful.
“Dorree — I do have a deeply lived insight … I was a child at Pearl Harbor. I carried the most awful tightly held terror for over fifty years. My trauma was less because of what I witnessed, and more because of hearing the indiscriminant conversations between the adults, which struck terror into my heart, since as an eight-year-old I had no context for them. The excited or even heightened affect that an adult may take for granted at times like these can pitch a child’s ego into disarray. Best to you, Paula.”

Life is too hard to do alone,

Dr. D.

Dorree Lynn, PH.D.

About the Author

Dr. Dorree Lynn is co-founder of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Psychotherapy and a practicing clinician in New York and Washington, DC. Dr. Lynn served on the executive board of the American Academy of Psychotherapists and she is on the editorial board of their publication, Voices. She is also a regular columnist for the Washington, DC newspaper, The Georgetowner. Dr. Lynn is a noted speaker and well known on the lecture circuit.

“Christianity posits the realization of human freedom not here on earth but only in the Kingdom of Heaven.” (1) Fukayama tells us, and it seems to me he is interpreting what the dogma says; even though it fits his own slave and master concept taken by his evil predecessors. Right as he may be about Christianity, he is not right about the teaching of Jesus. Well, what good is there in such a belief system? It encourages no growth or potential for freedom while you are alive. It gives no insight to actual knowing of what exists hereafter, except through faith in someone telling you what is right. How can anyone accept such utter hogwash? Are we to be enslaved to such a cosmogony while alive? God grows too, and he would be dead if he didn’t. All things around us in nature say change is a good thing.

Why would a ’social engineer’ like Fukayama tell us that Christianity is the ‘absolute religion’? Is this more expert inducement to be a slave? Methinks there is something rotten afoot, and not just in Denmark. His knowledge of early religions is not displayed in his book. I hope to show all religions have used knowledge that when others employ it they call it occult or some other derogatory name. I will have to show certain people and families in corporate or business life are also involved in the religions to the point of controlling them.

His judgement seems uneducated and unwise to me. His good versus evil Nietzschean dialogue is not aware of the truth plainly available in the words of the Britannica in reference to Zoroaster. They say this good versus evil thing of Christianity with a battle being won by good is there 500 years earlier in Zoroastrianism. In truth it was there in Egypt’s Abraxas, and in the Keltic Creed and many other places. There is no merit in such assertions and the issuance of them from the hegemony makes me Blanche and sputter, at times. How can you say man is free only in heaven or the hereafter and hope to build positive models of behaviour? This is especially true when you can buy ’special dispensations’ or simply confess in order to gain forgiveness. This is the kind of religion the Mafia would love! The cover of Cahill’s book The Gifts of the Jews shows all the councils of the Christians are behind another ‘Bible Narrative’. Please question such authoritarian assurances and employ your own soulful sensibilities. When you are troubled do not desist, but rather persevere and learn to see the Peace they seek to destroy or hide from you. Shalom!

Vivekananda, Swami Chinmayananda or lesser gurus are not the only adepts who teach self-mastery and how the mind or brain experiences the world around us. Rishis or Mahatmas are not regarded as occultists and yet the techniques they use have been shared for thousands of years by people throughout the world. Part of the whole issue of human cultural development is the Flat Earth fiction that continues to make people think that one point of view is better than some other point of view. It is as if the people of Europe think that their own leaders did not send their best students to get the best education or import the teachers who already had learned Tantra, and the Therapeutae’s arts derived from Druidism and shamanism or the Magian arts. At some level you can find adepts in the most orthodox religions. The Sufis of Islam or the Carmelites and Santerians of Catholicism come to mind but there are many mystical or occult sects in Buddhism.

“The universe is a self-organizing system engaged in the discovery and realization of its possibilities through a continuing process of transcendence towards ever higher levels of order and self-definition. Modern science has confirmed the ancient Hindu belief that all matter exists as a continuing dance of flowing energies. Yet matter is somehow able to maintain the integrity of its boundaries and internal structures in the midst of apparent disorder.

Similarly the cells of a living organism, which are in a constant state of energy flux, maintain their individual integrity while functioning coherently as parts of larger wholes. This ability implies some form of self-knowledge in both inert matter and living organisms at each level of organization. Intelligence and consciousness may take many forms and are in some way pervasive even in matter. What we know of life may not be an accident of creation but rather integral to it, an attractor that shapes the creative unfolding of the cosmos.

To the extent that these premises are true, they suggest we have scarcely begun to imagine, much less experience, the possibilities of our own capacity for intelligent self-aware living. Nor have we tested our potentials for self-directed cooperation as a foundation of modern social organization. Evolution, although it involves competitive struggles, violence and death, also involves love, nurturance, rebirth and regeneration-and is a fundamentally cooperative and intelligent enterprise.

There is substantial evidence that it is entirely natural for healthy humans to live fully and mindfully in service to the unfolding capacities of self, community, and the planet. Yet in our forgetfulness, we have come to doubt this aspect of our own being. Nurturing the creative development of our capacities for mindful living should be a primary function of the institutions of civilized societies. It is time that we awaken from our forgetfulness and assume conscious responsibility for reshaping our institutions to this end. Written by David C. Korten in the prologue of “The Post-Corporate World” Life after capitalism http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1576750515/102-1126258-0124163” (2)

There are many people who follow greatness or need to be lead and we must investigate any who tell us about great things they have experienced. This can be very difficult because what works for one person will not work for another person for reasons of their differentness as well as the constant availability of knowledge and ‘direct cognition’ or what I call tap-ins. I provide a comment from one of Gurdjieff’s students who saw others finding illumination in a way he personally found silly. This is an excerpt from William Welch M. D.’s remembrances of this great man who saw most humans could not think or even feel their way to actual wisdom. Gurdjieff’s structured dance allowed certain parts of the mind to integrate and then connect without any obstruction from the programming and fears of their lives. This is my personal opinion that you might not agree with too. This excerpt is in relation to the ritual of bathing and saunas that Gurdjieff did while in New York shortly before he passed away.

“I was astounded to read some years later that among the bemused adepts who participated in this droll ritual, one believed himself to have been initiated into some special level of illumination in the course of his gradual, and ultimately total, immersion. I am afraid my only illumination derived from the shuddering chill to which I never became wholly acclimated, as my fundament and its anterior appendages were finally plunged into the icy water.” (3)

The idea that a fully diluted homeopathic tincture might heal through some imprint left by Cyanide found in peach pits or laetrile is just one of the conundrums that science still struggles to face. But the fact is cyanide kills cells and results have been achieved by some people who might have attuned themselves with that small amount of Cyanide that Japanese researchers found in peach pits after the US researchers said there was no possible agent that could kill cancer cells in peach pits. The implications of this extend to genetic rituals that modern science cannot see the effects of, and other energy lattice memory or Intelligence. One of my correspondents is a genetic researcher at a university in the Midwestern United States and we both have found artifacts that indicate the use of harmonic attunement with matter in rocks and we are open to this same method being used in affecting the DNA of animal life including humans.

About the Author

Author of Diverse Druids
Columnist for The ES Press Magazine
Guest ‘expert’ at World-Mysteries.com

Our thoughts often turn to our families during the holiday season. During the recent holidays, I got to thinking about my mother, Mary. She died in 1988.

In my family’s Roman Catholic religious tradition, we had “wakes” when someone died. A wake consisted of displaying the body in an open casket for several days before the funeral mass and burial. Friends and family would come to pay their respects to the dead one and her immediate family.

During my mother’s wake, two of my elderly cousins appeared one afternoon together. Giovanni and Giuseppe were brothers, and rather colorful Sicilian characters. They bustled into the funeral home, rushing headlong to the back room of the building.

Kneeling before the casket with bowed heads, they offered a silent prayer. As they rose to their feet, they looked, for the first time, into the casket. After exchanging long, shocked glances with each other, Giovanni finally blurted out, “That’s not Aunt Mary!”

Giovanni and Giuseppe had gone into the wrong room. As it happened that day, there were two wakes at the funeral home. The brothers had not bothered to check which room my mother’s wake was in.

Later on, we had a large dinner party to celebrate my mother’s life, as is the Sicilian custom. And we all had a good laugh at Giovanni’s and Giuseppe’s colossal blunder.

On a more serious note, I got to thinking later about how often we do the same thing my cousins did. Except we do it in our relationships with live human beings.

How often do we not even bother to look and see who this person before us is? We just plough thoughtlessly and blindly ahead, not caring enough to really look and see.

Chief Joseph

You live in a world today that often seems impersonal and uncaring. A world where the individual seemingly counts for little. Even in your modern world of technology, the marvelous and quick communication your technology affords you often becomes impersonal and uncaring.

We are not criticizing you, friends, for the way you often interact with each other, or fail to. In your hurried and harried lives, it often seems difficult to slow down and take the time, as you say, to smell the roses. Or to get to know a little bit about the sisters and brothers, your fellow travellers, you meet on your daily journey through life.

So we do understand where you are in your lives.

But we also want to say it would behoove you to slow down a bit every now and then. Take some time to smell the roses. Take some time to peek under the masks of those folks you encounter every day.

You all wear masks. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

But your masks also keep you from truly connecting with each other, even with those loved ones you see every day, perhaps even those you live with.

It takes only a few moments to ask someone you encounter on your daily rounds, “How are you?” And really mean it — not just as a hollow, empty greeting — but as a genuine expression of concern for your fellow traveller.

Just be open to listen, really listen, for a few moments — and to connect with one another. Or to re-connect.

It won’t take a lot of your time, and it will yield rich rewards.

After all, you are all connected anyway. You are all one, even though you live in the illusion of separation.

So take the time to lift the veils of illusion, to look beneath the masks. And to remember the love that binds all of you together.

Then you’ll never find yourselves in Giovanni’s and Giuseppe’s predicament of having no idea who the person before you is.

Copyright © 2005 by Great Western Publishing

About the Author

Since 1992, John Cali has been communicating with a spirit called Joseph. In one of his many physical lifetimes, this spirit was incarnated as the legendary Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe in what is now Oregon.

Email john@greatwesternpublishing.org
Website www.greatwesternpublishing.org
Free newsletter at chiefjoseph-on@mail-list.com
Private readings with Chief Joseph at readings@greatwesternpublishing.org

When we look at the shaping of the Internet, page by page the Internet is being built in a brick by brick form each person adding their particular piece to the puzzle, we can’t help but to wonder how we affect each other indirectly in her decision to use certain web design methods.

For example when we build our website and someone else sees it are they building their website based on our website or to our website and spy or something in them that makes them build a website similar to ours?

I tend to think that as each website is put out there ideas come to mind and new tools are built into web editors bringing webpage design into an evolutionary leap forward.

Webpage designs seem to be getting more and more complex as Internet ages but this I think is a rock created by the bigger companies as a way to trick smaller companies into believing that they have to generate flash websites in order to compete for the market.

The thing is the smaller companies to utilize the traffic generating potential of search engine optimization and web design using flashy sites is actually a bad idea because search engines will never see it place value on it.

The truth is simpler to design and the more SEO compliant the site is the more traffic you will get.