The Calculation That Proves We're Not Alone in the Universe | Light at the End of the Tunnel

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The Calculation That Proves We're Not Alone in the Universe | Light at the End of the Tunnel
Dec 20, 2013 | breakingtheset

Abby Martin remarks on a recent discovery of five Jupiter sized planets that contain water within our milky way, and outlines the Drake Equation by astrophysicist Carl Sagan.

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5 Green Manure Crops You can Plant to Heal the Soil

© Natural Society

5 Green Manure Crops You can Plant to Heal the Soil
Dec 20, 2013 | Natural Society | Christina Sarich

Much of the soil in our nation has become infertile due to the overuse of pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, and the persistent practice of mono-cropping which depletes nutrients from the soil, and thus the crops that are grown within it. Our current nutrient-depleted soil may soon lead to the impossible growth of crops, causing food shortages and more increased food prices. We need to change our farming practices to save the soil – this is where green manure comes in. 

Green manure is the final product when crops are grown to be sewn back into the soil, instead of harvested for human consumption. You can think of them as plant offerings to Mother Nature that will increase future crop yields, help make plants more resistant to pests, and keep the soil fertile for another season.

Small farmholders and home gardeners alike can benefit from green manure. In a time of food sovereignty issues created by corporations like Monsanto, practices like these are paramount. Agroecologist, Roland Bunch, states in his report, Restoring the Soil:

“Millions of smallholder farmers around the world, however, are facing a serious soil fertility crisis, and many of these families also suffer from food insecurity. Soil infertility and erosion losses in many regions of the world are standing in the way of increased food production and improved livelihoods for many smallholder farmers. Maintaining, and in many cases recovering soil fertility, has become a major challenge facing agricultural professionals and farmers.”

Just 4 Benefits of Green Manure

• Green manure is less expensive than animal manure, and is usually more trustworthy since many animal manures are often laced with antibiotics and growth hormones. Green manure, once grown for a few seasons, is practically free.

• Green manure can also help create vital soil in areas with little or no top soil due to water run off or construction that often tears away at vast tracts of land without considering the long term effects. The best thing about green manure – it deters weeds, even without the use of harmful herbicides. Earthworms and beneficial bacteria love green manure, too, and these critters are great for your garden.

• Poor and exhausted soils really perk up from planting this type of manure as well, so if you are planning your Spring garden now, consider planting some of these crops instead of relying on commercial fertilizers which are often full of plant-weakening chemicals.

• Green manure also helps with soil erosion due to weather, like wind and rain.

Read: 4 Ways to Heal and Replenish our Damaged Soil

A good soil is usually balanced in nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous, plus lots of trace minerals that come from decomposed organic matter – not industrial fertilizers. The run-off alone from chemical fertilizers upsets the entire eco-system from the microscopic beneficial bugs and worms in your garden, all the way up the food chain, to trees and people.

By planting the following green manure crops you can help revitalize tired soil. Just be sure to add a good organic compost too before your next planting, and your garden should grow beautifully without using pesticides and herbicides because the plants will be stronger and better able to resist disease and pests. Also be sure to plant organic, heirloom, non-GMO seeds.

These 5 crops are notorious for replacing nitrogen to pesticide depleted soil:

• 1. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) – Not only can alfalfa plants restore your soil by adding nitrogen back to the soil, but they are also ages-old medicinal plants that support good health. Alfalfa is full of vitamin C, K, and calcium. You can sew some of the sprouts for yourself as a nutrient-dense addition to salads, and let the rest grow an entire season for a deep rooting into your soil. Then till them in when you’re ready to plant in the spring or late summer.

• 2. Broad Beans or Fava Beans (Vicia faba) – These beans grow very easily, and produce a great nitrogen-fixing green manure crop. You can also enjoy some as they grow to get extra folate (which helps prevent birth defects), energy-giving Vitamin B, vegetable protein, and potassium.

• 3. Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) - Even the mainstream media admits that Red Clover has amazing healing benefits. It is used in some Essiac tea recipes to prevent cancer, and can also help with skin conditions as well as purify the blood. It is also a wonderful crop to plant to revitalize your soil. Just make sure you sew the seeds at least 6 inches apart to allow space for the beautiful flowering plants. You can allow some to grow to full maturity, and plow the rest into the soil before they flower to add nutrients back into the earth.

• 4. Lupin (Lupinus angustifolius) – Lupin is a deep rooting legume which you can eat and also till into the soil before it grows to full maturity to replace nitrogen. You can even plant this crop in 8 week rotations to keep the soil viable. Lupin is being called the next ‘super grain’ since it is 45-50% protein and full of vitamins.

• 5. Winter tare (Vicia villosa) or Hairy Vetch (Vicia sativa) – Great nitrogen-fixing crops with an extensive root system that helps to prevent soil erosion, these are amazing plants that even grow during the winter months in many parts of the world. Since the crops grow into long 12-foot vines, they can also act like a blanket for the soil during winter months.

Florida: Number of annual manatee deaths top 800 for first time on record

© Wikimedia Commons.
A group of three manatees

Earth Changes: Florida: Number of annual manatee deaths top 800 for first time on record
Dec 19, 2013 | Tampa Bay Times | Craig Pittman

For the first time since records began being kept in Florida in the 1970s, the number of manatee deaths in a single year has topped 800, with two weeks remaining to the end of 2013.

Numbers released by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg this week showed the number of dead manatees at 803 as of Dec. 13. That's about 16 percent of the state's estimated population of 5,000 manatees.

And 173 of the dead were breeding-age female manatees, Martine DeWit of the institute's Marine Mammal Pathology Laboratory said Thursday.

Although it's too soon to say how this will affect the future of the species, she said, "It must have an impact to lose these important breeding females."

For comparison, last year's total number of manatee deaths was 392, which is more in line with what's normal.

The old record for manatee deaths, set in 2010, resulted from a lengthy cold snap that killed hundreds of manatees, pushing that year's number of deaths to 766. That cold snap mostly affected younger manatees that had not yet attained breeding age, DeWit said.

This year's record die-off was driven by two causes - one of which remains a mystery.

First a massive bloom of Red Tide algae along the state's southwestern coast caused 276 deaths early in the year. Red Tide has been around for centuries and has killed manatees before. But this year was the worst Red Tide die-off ever recorded.

Meanwhile, a mysterious ailment has been killing manatees in the Indian River Lagoon on the state's east coast. That's been going on since last year but hit a fever pitch in the spring. Twenty-five died in March.

All told, 117 manatees have died in the Indian River Lagoon since July 2012, including one that died this month, according to Kevin Baxter, spokesman for the state marine science laboratory. No one can explain the die-off, which appears to be unprecedented.

Scientists are also baffled as to why scores of dolphins and pelicans died in the lagoon too, or whether there is any connection among the three unusual events.

The deaths of the three species may be a result of pollution-fueled algae blooms that wiped out some 47,000 acres of sea grass in the 156-mile-long lagoon that stretches along the state's Atlantic Coast.

Manatees normally eat sea grass, but with the sea grass gone they turned to less healthful sources of nutrition. They ate a reddish seaweed called Gracilaria. Tests have found "a suite of toxins" on the Gracilaria, but there is no confirmation that that's what killed the manatees. And that would not normally affect dolphins and pelicans, which eat fish, not sea grass.

There was one piece of good news in the figures. This year, 71 manatees have been killed by boats. That's down from the 81 that were killed by boats in 2012 and well below the record of 95 in 2002.

Fast facts

Through the years

A decade of Florida manatee deaths:

2004: 276

2005: 396

2006: 417

2007: 317

2008: 337

2009: 429

2010: 766

2011: 453

2012: 392

2013: 803 (as of Dec. 13)

Source: Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg

German scientists show natural climate cycles dominated over last 7000 years...Blaming man is "witch-hunting"

© Wikipedia.org

German scientists show natural climate cycles dominated over last 7000 years...Blaming man is "witch-hunting"
Dec 21, 2013 | Dr. Sebastian Lüning and Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt \ No Tricks Zone

The pattern in society today is clear to see. Whenever a storm hits a region and submerges terrain in water, or if a drought destroys crops, then the one to blame is quickly found: It has got to be man and his debaucherous CO2-spewing lifestyle that is bringing the climate into a state of catastrophic instability. In former times witches and sorcerers were made responsible for meteorological extremes, and they were burned at the town square so that future bad weather could be prevented. Like today, back then no one really cared about scientific arguments.

But here one only needs to look over the scientific literature in order to recognize that storms and weather extremes have always been the case and things really aren't any different today. Yet another new study has just come out, appearing in the November 2013 edition of the Quaternary Science Reviews, by a team of scientists led by Tina Swierczynski of the Geoforschungszentrum (GFZ) Potsdam. The scientists examined sediment deposits taken from the Austrian Mondsee and they were able to identify the development of flooding phases of rivers in the region caused by heavy rainfalls in the spring and summers. The geological archive goes back more than 7000 years.

In total Tina Swierczynski and her colleagues found 271 flooding events that had occurred during 18 flood-rich phases, each having a duration of 30 - 50 years. The most important of these phases took place during the Neolithic (7100 - 7050 vyr BP and 6470 - 4450 vyr BP), the late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age (3300 - 3250 and 2800 - 2750 vyr BP), the late Iron Age (2050 - 2000 vyr BP), throughout the Dark Ages Cold Period (1500 - 1200 vyr BP), and at the end of the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age (810 - 430 vyr BP). The scientists found that summer flood episodes in Lake Mondsee are generally more abundant during the last 1500 years, often coinciding with major advances of Alpine glaciers.

The study provides a historically important context that absolutely needs to be taken into account when assessing modern day flooding events. It is clear that there were always heavy rain phases in pre-industrial times. Therefore it also scientifically doubtful that the flooding events of today can be automatically connected to man-made climate change. Those who allow themselves to be seduced by the hypothesis of man-made climate are seriously under-estimating the potential of the natural fluctuation range of extreme weather occurrences.

(Translated, edited by P. Gosselin)

Dusty Plasma: Spiraling filaments suggest electric currents in space

The Eagle Nebula (M16). Credit: T.A.Rector
(NRAO/AUI/NSF and NOAO/AURA/NSF)
and B.A.Wolpa (NOAO/AURA/NSF)

Dusty Plasma
Dec 19, 2013 | Thunderbolts.info | Stephen Smith

Spiraling filaments suggest electric currents in space.

Dust at a temperature near absolute zero shows up in the image above as a blue fog deep in the heart of the Eagle nebula. The Eagle nebula, located in the constellation Serpens approximately 7000 light-years away, is supposedly an active “star nursery”. It is a multi-spectral cloud of gas mixed with microscopic particles of dust.

The consensus view is that cold dust is a necessary ingredient when stars condense out of a nebula. When gas and dust start to collapse into a new star it naturally warms up and radiates energy. As the theory states, outward pressure is created that opposes the inward force of gravity. If the outward force wins and overcomes the force of gravity, the atoms in the gas will never be compressed enough to undergo nuclear fusion. However, if the dust in the nebula is cold enough, it allows the heat created in the gravitational collapse to be radiated away, therefore a new star can ignite.

On the other hand, when the Electric Universe theory is considered, cold nebulae are evidence of electrical activity even at temperatures near absolute zero. Bipolar symmetry is typical of most nebulae, and most of them are dense enough to emit light because they are extremely hot in some regions. The middle of the Eagle Nebula is cold: radio measurements indicate the dust clouds around the inner part are only one degree above absolute zero.

The filamentary structure of the “fingers” and the way the filaments spiral away from the central stars indicates Birkeland currents, named after Kristian Birkeland, who first proposed their existence in the late 1800s. These currents form scalable tubes of plasma that can transmit electric power all around the galaxy. Electromagnetic forces sometimes cause them to pinch down to smaller and smaller sizes.

Plasma confined within the center of the pinch is crushed and increases in current density until the so-called “z-pinch” produces a star. Plasma surrounding the star will often glow as an emission nebula, but in some conditions of opacity and density the surrounding plasma can be cold, as in the Eagle Nebula, revealing its presence only in infrared light.

Conventional astronomers do no know how stars through off clouds of gas and dust that eventually become other stars because stars are not made of gas and dust. A star is the focus of Birkeland currents that make up circuits flowing around the galaxy. The electromagnetic pinch that squeezes plasma into the star also forms a toroidal current around the star’s equator. The density of the current causes the plasma in the ring to glow. The Electric Universe explanation is that we are looking at plasma structures when we look at nebulae, and they behave according to the laws of electrical discharges and circuits.

Instead of mechanical action and cold gas, the Eagle Nebula’s radiant new stars were created in a boost of electric current. It is not necessary to prevent young stars from heating up by shielding them in cold dust. The electrical sheath around a new star receives input from the galactic Birkeland currents in which it is immersed and gets pushed into the glow mode discharge state. Gravity has little if anything to do with the processes of star formation.
Stephen Smith

Nine states propose 16 anti-fluoridation bills in 2013 to protect public against poison

© Natural News

Nine states propose 16 anti-fluoridation bills in 2013 to protect public against poison
Dec 20, 2013 | Natural News | Ethan A. Huff

Things are heating up on the fluoride front as states and municipalities all across the country rethink their official water fluoridation policies. According to the Fluoride Action Network (FAN), some 16 pieces of legislation across nine states were introduced or passed just within the past year to protect the public against this pervasive poison.

In Utah, for instance, the Safe Drinking Water Disclosure Act was passed back in April, requiring that all shipments of fluoride chemicals coming into the state be accompanied by certificates of analysis detailing the presence of any outside contaminants. The law reportedly took effect on July 1, allowing local water utilities to end their fluoridation programs in the event that certificates are not provided.

Fluoride additives, as you may recall, are often laced with other poisons like arsenic, cadmium and even radioactive isotopes that persist from the waste liquids used by the phosphate fertilizer and aluminum manufacturing industries to capture pollutants. These pollutants, not the natural environment, are the source from which the artificial fluoride chemicals added to water supplies are derived.

Tennessee, a leader in anti-fluoridation legislation, introduced two similar bills earlier this year requiring fluoride manufacturers to disclose the full contents of their chemicals. House Bill 1215 and Senate Bill 1274 were also accompanied by HB 1186 and SB 1211, two bills that would allow local voters to decide whether or not to continue fluoridating their water supplies. Statewide, Tennessee also introduced HR 130, which would prohibit state employees or agencies from endorsing fluoride.

"In years past the dental lobby has been successful in getting pro-fluoridation bills introduced in state legislatures across the United States, including legislation that would mandate statewide fluoridation -- a law 13 states presently have. But the tables are turning," explains FAN. "In 2013... instead of the introduction of pro-fluoride bills, we saw the exact opposite, with the introduction of 16 anti-fluoridation bills in 9 states."

Five states introduce legislation to eliminate fluoridation mandates 

Concerning statewide fluoridation mandates, New Jersey successfully thwarted attempts by some legislators to require that its 9 million residents be forcibly medicated with fluoride poison. And at least five bills have been introduced, one each in South Dakota, Connecticut, Minnesota, Illinois and Arkansas, to end longstanding fluoridation mandates.

"With the exception of the Illinois bill, all of these proposals are still being considered and are expected to have public hearings in 2014," adds FAN. "In preparation, FAN has been working with our point people and local groups within these states to organize grassroots campaigns in support of the legislation."

Besides the aforementioned bills, a handful of other anti-fluoride bills were introduced this year in Kansas, Massachusetts and New York. HB 2372 in Kansas now requires that warnings about fluoride and its effect on IQ -- a Harvard University study recently confirmed that fluoride exposure lowers IQ levels in children -- be printed on water bills.

In Massachusetts, a similar bill would require an infant fluoride warning similar to the infant warnings currently issued in New Hampshire; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Austin, Texas. And in New York, A 141 has been introduced to require that all fluoridated communities lower their poisoning level from 1.2 parts per million (ppm) of fluoride to 0.7 ppm of fluoride, in accordance with new recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"It doesn't take an expert to see that the tide has shifted, that state legislators are discovering the truth about fluoridation, and that the momentum is clearly on our side going into the 2014 legislative sessions," concludes FAN.

To support the work of FAN and to keep up to date on fluoride legislation in your own community, visit:
http://fluoridealert.org.

Sources for this article include:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org

http://fluoridealert.org

http://science.naturalnews.com

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Assault on Our Sovereignty, Our Constitution, Our Liberty (Video)

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Assault on Our Sovereignty, Our Constitution, Our Liberty (Video)
Dec 19, 2013 | The new American | William F. Jasper

Over the past couple of years, The New American has presented many articles, including a special “Free Trade Agenda” issue of the print publication (PDF), exposing the dangers of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. It is a regional trade agreement aimed at integrating the economic, legal, and political systems of Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam — and the United States. As such, it proposes a radical, unconstitutional transformation of our republic and of the entire governing structure of our nation.

The architects of the TPP admit that they plan to expand the outrageous ambitions of the TPP to an even larger group of nations, which they have dubbed the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP). The Peterson Institute for International Economics is one of the premier globalist think tanks and a key promoter of the TPP. A Peterson Institute study states that “the TPP is regarded as an interim arrangement or stepping stone toward a broader, regionwide Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific.”

The TPP and FTAAP promoters are consciously using the same formula of lies, deception and subversion that globalist leaders in Europe have been employing for decades to convert formerly independent nations into obedient “member states” of the European Union.


The TPP, if accepted, will transfer increasing legislative, executive and judicial powers to regional entities, and to the World Trade Organization, which claims ultimate jurisdiction over all matters covered by the agreement.

And what kind of matters are those?

Since all negotiations have been held in secrecy, we can only report on the issues the U.S. Trade Representative’s office admits the TPP covers, which include: customs, telecommunications, investment services, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, intellectual property, regulatory coherence, development, non-conforming measures and cross-border trade in services, rules of origin, competition, agriculture, textiles, and environment.

One can only speculate the consequences when surrendering sovereignty on any of these important issues.

Wikileaks, an Internet whistleblower site, leaked one chapter of the text in late 2013. It showed the dangers the TPP presents to alternative, independent media and the right of citizens to communicate via the Internet.

The TPP would, in effect implement the anti-freedom measures of two badly misnamed bills that failed to pass Congress: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). These bills would have drastically affected Internet freedom, allowing virtually anyaone — but especially the ruling powers — to stop publication of anything they find objectionable by claiming copyright infringement.

My colleague at The New American, constitutional attorney Joe Wolverton, points out that “such procedures bypass the U.S. court system and the Constitution by abolishing the due process owed to those accused of crimes.” And notes Wolverton, “The TPP is an attack on our laws, our courts, our freedom of expression, our Constitution, and our sovereignty.”

Contact your representatives now to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and see the additional articles listed below that we’ve published detailing the dangers of the TPP.

Related articles:

WikiLeaks Publishes Key Chapter of Secret TPP Agreement
Regional Scheme for the Pacific Rim
Trans-Pacific Partnership Ready for Christmas Delivery?
TPP Secret Trade Agreement Puts International Tribunal Above U.S.
The “Free Trade” Agenda Threatens Our Rights
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Secret Surrender of Sovereignty

Fluoridation’s Shocking History

Fluoridation’s Shocking History
Dec 19, 2013 | Green Med TV

How did the thought that ingesting fluoride would benefit oral and dental health actually start? Professor Paul Connett describes how and why water fluoridation started in this country. He points out the many flaws in the reasoning behind it and the many concerns of continued fluoridation.

 
Related Article: Fertility Destroying Chemical Added To Tap, Milk, Salt

More from Green Med Info:

What Would Happen if Water Fluoridation Stopped?

Fluoride is Poison: Abby Martin

Fluoride Does Not Reduce Tooth Decay- But THIS Does!

‘Fluoridated Water Amounts to Public Murder on a Grand Scale’ ~ Dr. Burk

What Would Happen if Water Fluoridation Stopped?

Fluoridegate: An American Tragedy

Study: Sick dolphins a year after oil spill

© New York Times

Study: Sick dolphins a year after oil spill
Dec 18, 2013 | Phys.org | Janet Mcconnaughey

A study assessing damage from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill said dolphins in a heavily oiled Louisiana bay were in bad shape a year later, with lung damage consistent with exposure to oil.

Government, academic and other researchers made comprehensive check-ups on 29 dolphins in Barataria Bay in August 2011 as part of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment—a federal process to determine damage and how to repair it.

Their study was published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. It said nearly half the dolphins examined were in guarded, poor or grave condition. That compared to one out of 15 caught for comparison in Sarasota Bay, Fla.

Federal scientist Lori Schwacke says she has never seen such a large percentage of very sick dolphins.

Michael Moore: Thank you so much for making pro-nuclear movie — What a risky, brave idea — France doesn’t seem to have problems with it — I hear ‘Solar and wind are not going to save us’ — I’m concerned about statements by environmental groups against nuclear power (VIDEO)

Michael Moore: Thank you so much for making pro-nuclear movie — What a risky, brave idea — France doesn’t seem to have problems with it — I hear ‘Solar and wind are not going to save us’ — I’m concerned about statements by environmental groups against nuclear power (VIDEO)
Dec 15, 2013 | ENE News

Michael Moore and Pandora’s Promise Director Robert Stone at The Traverse City Film Festival, July 2013:

3:00: What a kind of risky, brave idea to essentially say, there are people on the left who are questioning what has been one of the tenants of the left, which is anti-nuclear, anti-nuclear power.

6:15: There are other whispers by people who care about the environment […] I hear them and nobody wants to say it out loud, like for instance, ‘Solar and wind are not going to save us.’ [...] And to completely generate electricity for a home, those two panels you can put on the top of your roof, they can heat your hot water heater, that works pretty well, but to provide electricity, I don’t know what the exact number is, but I read some crazy number like you need a half-acre of solar panels. [...] Because I have such respect for you I went into it with an open mind [...] I really wanted to bring this here. [...] I have started to feel, I’ve started to question my own support of that, I’m not not supportive of solar and wind [...] we should try anything and everything.

12:15: You’re right they [France] do, they do it quite well, they don’t seem to have problems… they live longer than we do.

17:30: Why are the professionals [environmental organizations against nuclear power]? … it’s the money? It’s money.

20:30: I’m really happy to have shown this. [...] I think it’s important what you’ve done here. I think we have to have this discussion [...] I’m concerned about some of the statements that are made by some of the professional environmental groups and environmentalists. I don’t know what to trust sometimes.  I know now that there’s some self-interests involved. […] On those days where there’s no sun, how am I warming up my pizza? And it doesn’t store like gas. I think we all have to have an open mind and we need to start questioning these things. I think we have to have this discussion, it shouldn’t be about ideological, I think we all need to tone down our ideology about this particular thing […] We’re the ones who should lead the discussion […] we want to have that discussion because we know that something is horribly wrong [...] I feel so bad for our kids and our grand kids […] they will hate us a generation or two from now. I like being liked. Thank you Mr. Robert Stone for making this movie.

Watch the event here

More on wind and solar here: The world can be fully powered by alternative energy in 20-40 years, Stanford researcher says

More on Pandora’s Promise here: Paper: CNN’s nuclear propaganda film “is dishonest to its core” — It’s “actually an infomercial” as well as Another Take on Pandora’s Promise and also The Guardian: Pandora’s Promise doesn’t live up to the hype