4 Ancient Superfoods and their Timeless Benefits

© Natural Society

4 Ancient Superfoods and their Timeless Benefits
Oct 3, 2012 | Elizabeth Renter

Though the term “super food” has only been in circulation in recent years, the idea of super-nutritious and life giving foods have been around since the beginning of time. As a matter of fact, it’s likely that ancient man had a far better idea of what true superfoods are than what we gather as we wade through aisles of cans and boxes, seeking out those things that are in their most natural forms. Still, today anyone can compile a hefty superfoods list for the next shopping day.

Ancient Superfoods for Your Superfoods List

There are foods that have been around for centuries, even millennia. And many of these foods are just as good now as they were then. So which foods should be on your superfoods list? Here are some timeless superfoods that you should include in your diet today:

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• Quinoa - You’ve likely heard of it because it’s experienced a growing resurgence in the past few years. But, quinoa has been around for ages. The Incas of South America refer to this food as chisaya mama, or the mother of all grains. It’s high in protein, calcium, and iron, and is very versatile. Cook with herbs and diced veggies or form with legumes and seasonings into veggie patties. Due to it’s high protein content, it is great to help makeup a high protein vegetarian diet, and can be used with natural remedies for hair loss and hair thinning.

• Spirulina - Spirulina is an algae that is rich in protein, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. It is said to be one of the oldest life forms on earth and has been eaten as long ago as the 9^th century in the Kanem Empire of Chad. It’s good for your eyes, your skin, allergies, and stabilizing blood sugar.

• Sacha Inchi - This food is a little more obscure, but has been consumed in the Amazon jungle for ages. It’s considered a superfood of the ancient Incas and is reported to contain concentrated Omega-3 fats. It’s also rich in iodine, and vitamins A and E.

• Maca - Another ancient Incan superfood, Maca can be found in the mountains of Peru. It’s said to be an excellent all-natural energy source and also contains numerous plant sterols, iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium, and iodine.

And let’s not forget other amazing superfoods like turmeric, ginger, honey, garlic and much more. These are foods that fight cancer and protect you against countless diseases.

How can you prepare these foods? While quinoa is easy to find and super easy to cook, the others may be more of a challenge. Both spirulina and maca supplements can be found at most health food stores. Sacha Inchi can be found in an oil form and can be used as you would use olive oil on salads.

The ancients knew a thing or two about natural living, and their foods were the original superfoods you should add to your modern superfoods list.

Additional Sources:

NaturalNews.com/028782_maca_Incas.html

Alsearsmd

NaturalNews.com/036101_spirulina_superfood_nutrients.html

Spirulina-Benefits-Health

The Huffington Post

The Meaning of Having Heart

© Back Door Survival

The Meaning of Having Heart
Oct 3, 2012 | Gaye Levy

Today, as things continue to deteriorate around us, I feel that it is important for all of us to step up and have heart for the good people in our community.  These are the people that are ordinary, hard-working, law abiding citizens that have been caught in this economic slump with no job (or a lousy minimum wage job), no safety net, and not a whole lot to look forward to.  
 
I personally feel a lot of compassion for these people and want to share my thoughts on “having heart”.  I have used that term often and yet when I tried to find the origin or that saying, I drew a blank.  So, lacking something better, let us go with “having the passion to care and to show kindness to your fellow man”.

Now you might ask:  Why this?  And why today?

I will answer that but first, I want to let you know that back in July, I sent a version of this article to my newsletter subscribers. At the time, my newsletter list was new and I only had a few hundred subscribers which means that only a handful of my readers have seen this.  And so I share this today, because for me – and I hope for you – the message is important.

What is wrong with this picture?

Read more..

Scientists Find More Wasps That Eat Maggots from Inside Out

© Live Science

Scientists Find More Wasps That Eat Maggots from Inside Out
Oct 3, 2012 | Live Science

Little is known about tropical parasitic wasps in the subfamily Orthocentrinae besides their gruesome lifestyle. They lay their single egg in the body of a fly maggot and as the baby wasp larva grows, it eats the body of its host from the inside out.

Now researchers say they've discovered a surprising diversity of the group in South and Central America.

Scientists examined 1,549 Orthocentrinae wasps that were collected in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Amazon rain forests of Ecuador. From this group, they identified at least 177 distinct species — far more than the 14 currently described in the region and more than the 151 species known in North America, where they have been more thoroughly studied.

These parasitic wasps, which are just a few millimeters long, were believed to be more diverse in temperate climates. But study researcher Gavin Broad said the new findings challenge that assumption.

"We now have good evidence that these wasps are very diverse in the tropics and we should take that into account when looking at patterns of biodiversity across the globe," Broad, a wasp expert with the Natural History Museum in London, said in a statement. He added that the diversity of species could reveal more about the subfamily's place in the ecosystem.

"Considering the numbers of these wasps that can be found in forests, they must be playing an important role in the complicated cycle that breaks down dead wood," Broad explained.

"The fungi break down wood, as well as leaves and other organic debris. The flies eat the fungi and the orthocentrines feed on the flies — there is a complicated and delicate pyramid of interactions supported by the presence of dead wood and leaf litter in the forests."

Broad and his colleagues identified the wasps through DNA tests and differences in the specimens' physical characteristics. Their findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Wednesday (Oct. 3) and they say their next step is to properly name and describe the new species.

Electric Galaxies Defy Big Bang

Electric Galaxies Defy Big Bang
Oct 2, 2012 | ThunderboltsProject



Papers and discussions on Ian Tresman's Plasma Universe: http://www.plasma-universe.com/Special:Search?search=redshift&fulltext=Se...

Halton Arp's official website: http://www.haltonarp.com/

TPODs dealing with redshift and other related issues: http://www.thunderbolts.info/wp/?s=redshift

Discussions on Wal Thornhill's site: http://www.holoscience.com/wp/?s=redshift

How Nash Equilibrium is Feeding on Life

Why do competitors open their stores next to one another? - Jac de Haan
Oct 1, 2012 | TEDEducation

What's invisible? More than you think - John Lloyd

What's invisible? More than you think - John Lloyd
Sept 26, 2012 | TEDEducation

Electric Comet: The Elephant in NASA's Living Room?

Left: Specimen produced in the laboratory
of CJ Ransom.  Right: Comet Hartley.

Electric Comet: The Elephant in NASA's Living Room?
June 29, 2011 | Michael Goodspeed

For thousands of years, the appearance of a comet in the terrestrial skies has provoked deep anxiety and even collective hysteria in humans the world over. The reasons for this response are not entirely clear. Working with historical testimony, David Talbott and his colleagues have concluded that comet fears originated in a global experience of catastrophe and terror. Behind all of the regional traditions and stories is the memory of the "Great Comet," the mother of all comets. The memory traces to the origins of world mythology, according to Talbott, and is particularly vivid in the story of a cosmic serpent or dragon threatening to destroy the world. The most common ancient ideas attached to a comet were the death of kings, the fall of kingdoms, cosmic upheaval, and the end of the world.

It is well worth asking why this collective anxiety can be provoked with the first appearance of a mere wisp of gas in the heavens. The question is especially appropriate today because of the approach of the Comet Elenin, which is predicted to pass within about 0.233 AU of the Earth in October of this year. Speculations about Elenin range from a theoretical NASA coverup of an "extinction level event," to theories that the comet is actually the ever-elusive planet "Nibiru" of author Zecharia Sitchin's lore. (For a thoughtful meditation on the credibility of some of these theories, see the Subversify.com piece, "Is Google Censoring Nibiru?"). It should be noted here that the leading proponent of the electric universe, Wal Thornhill, has refrained from predicting specific behaviors of Elenin due to the number of unknowns. These unknowns (discussed below) include the Sun's activity, and the constituent material of the comet itself.

One can understand the frustration NASA likely feels when witnessing the carnival of theories surrounding space science news stories today. However, NASA must surely bear some of the responsibility for the evident mistrust and even anger so often expressed toward the agency. On the issue of comets NASA has never acknowledged the failures of the standard theory. We are still told that comets are "dirty snowballs" that formed billions of years ago in a theoretical "Oort cloud." The idea makes no sense and has been repeatedly falsified by the observed behaviors of comets. Silence on such matters is not helpful. When the institutions of science choose a path of denial on controversial matters, rightly or wrongly it can only fuel perceptions of secrecy and suppression.

Read more..

America’s Electoral System Is Mathematically GUARANTEED to Produce Bad Results

America’s Electoral System Is Mathematically GUARANTEED to Produce Bad Results
Sept 27, 2012 | Washingtons Blog

Our System Forces a Two Party Race, Lacking Popular Representation

The Founding Fathers warned against a two-party system.

But the current election process guarantees a two-party system:



The electoral college can also severely skew the outcome. For example, it is possible for a presidential candidate to win even though 78% of the American public votes against him:



There are better alternatives. For example this:



And this:

Bug photography gets no better than this

Bug photography gets no better than this
Sept 25, 2012 | Live Leak

Critics Slam Standardized Testing for Kindergarteners

(Photograph by Leah-Anne Thompson.)

Critics Slam Standardized Testing for Kindergarteners
Sept 25, 2012 | CommonDreams.org

At least 25 states in the US now mandate at least one formal assessment during kindergarten, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Such a fact speaks directly to a growing (and for many, a troubling) trend of high-stakes early childhood testing taking root across the country.
 
Driven by corporate school reformers and incentived by Obama's "Race to the Top" education policy, the drive to push standardized testing to the lowest grade levels is met with cheers by testing companies like ACT Inc., who stand to profit greatly from such measures.

Opponents, however, told Reuters that the trend was hugely troubling and that adults—especially ones who claim educational expertise—"should know better".

Reuters reports:

Formal tests give a narrow picture of a child's ability, said Samuel Meisels, president of the Erikson Institute, a graduate school in Chicago focused on child development. He urges teachers instead to assess young children by observing them over time, recording skills and deficits and comparing those to benchmarks.

But Meisels fears such observational tests won't seem objective or precise enough in today's data-driven world; he says he too often sees them pushed aside in favor of more formal assessments.

"I am worried, yes," he said. "We should know better."

Kari Knutson, a veteran kindergarten teacher in Minnesota, has seen the shifting attitude toward testing play out in her classroom.

During her first two decades of teaching, Knutson rarely, if ever, gave formal tests; kindergarten was about learning through play, music, art and physical activity.

These days, though, her district mandates a long list of assessments.

Knutson started the year by quizzing each of her 23 students on the alphabet and phonics, through a 111-question oral exam. Last week, she brought the kids to the computer lab for another literacy test. Each kindergartener wore headphones and listened to questions while a menu of possible answers flashed on the screen. They were supposed to respond by clicking on the correct answer, though not all could maneuver the mouse and some gave up in frustration, Knutson said.

This week, it's on to math - and a seven-page, pencil-and-paper test. "It's supposed to show them what they'll be learning in first grade," Knutson said. "Like they really care."

In her view, the kids are far too young to tackle formal exams, especially in their first weeks of what is for many their first school experience. "Half of them are crying because they miss mom and dad. When you tell them to line up, they don't even know what a line is," Knutson said.

Read the full story at Reuters