On Minsk agreement, Putin wins and Obama loses

The only way that U.S. President Barack Obama can win in Ukraine now is by negotiating subsequent details to become deal-breakers to the February 12th draft agreement, such that for Russian President Vladimir Putin not to accept Obama's proposed details would mean that no deal will be signed. This could happen, because the prestige of both leaders is on the line in this new draft deal on Ukraine.

The agreement is only basic principles, which can be found here. The announcement of the agreement opens as follows:

"Russian President Vladimir Putin; President of Ukraine, Peter Poroshenko; French President Francois Hollande; and Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Angela Merkel, confirmed full respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. They firmly believe in the inevitability of peaceful resolution."

U.S. President Barack Obama is not mentioned there; but, for him to reject their deal, and to send lethal weapons to Ukraine now and so escalate the war and its massive bloodshed — which has already cost "up to 50,000" dead and millions of refugees — would be extremely embarrassing for the United States: no American "boots on the ground," just tens of thousands of Ukrainian corpses under it, in a war that Obama himself had initiated (and even the founder of Stratfor, the "private CIA" firm, says that the February 2014 overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, which started the war, was "the most blatant coup in history," which it certainly was , and is increasingly recognized as having been ).

If, during coming days, Putin does nothing that causes Merkel or Hollande to say Putin is violating what had been understood between the negotiants, then Putin will be essentially in control on those crucial remaining details too, and the U.S. position (which favors more war) (and this is so not only from Obama but also from the Congress) will go down in flames. The next few days and weeks will thus be crucial, and Merkel and Hollande hold the top cards, because Obama needs to avoid an open break with them — something that would be an open break with the EU itself, which America's aristocracy very much don't want to happen (since America's aristocracy would then lose their enormous influence over the EU).

The U.S. position has been for war against Russia from the start, which goes back at least to before 20 November 2013, when it was revealed in Ukraine's parliament or "Rada" that the U.S. had already very skillfully set to spring a Euromaidan movement to bring down the Ukrainian Presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, which "Euromaidan" then started the very next day, when President Yanukovych announced that Ukraine had received a better economic offer from the Eurasian Economic Community than from the European Union, and that therefore it would be in the best interests of the Ukrainian people for Ukraine to join with the EEC (which the people in eastern Ukraine wanted), than with the EU (which the people in western Ukraine wanted) and that this joining of the EEC would now happen. The Euromaidan protest, which had been organized by America's CIA, began on 21 November 2013. Its mass-members were regular western Ukrainians, but its leadership, the people who were armed, were Ukraine's nazis , a special group of western Ukrainians, who viscerally hate ethnic Russians and actually want to exterminate them (thus making these people ideal for Obama's purposes of crushing Russia).

Immediately after the coup when Yanukovych was overthrown, the EU sent an investigator, Urmas Paet, to find out whether the extremely violent overthrow of Yanukovych had been due to Yanukovych, or else to "someone from the new coalition [meaning the EU and U.S.]," and he reported, on 26 February 2014, to the EU's foreign affairs chief, Catherine Ashton, that it was due to "someone from the new coalition [our side]." This information shocked her. (As Obama's chief agent controlling the coup, Victoria Nuland, had said on 4 February 2014, preparing the coup, "F—k the EU!" In that same phone call, she also selected Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the person who would take over the Ukrainian Government after the coup, which he did, 22 days later. Anyone who denies that it was a coup is either ignorant or lying, because this is the first coup in history that was fully documented on live videos.) However, rejecting Ukraine as a new candidate for the EU didn't fit Ashton's job-description, and she could do nothing about the matter anyway; so, she accepted it, and tried to make it work, as peacefully as possible.

The EU's reason for wanting Ukraine is chiefly economic, for its gas and agricultural resources. The chief reason that America's aristocracy want Ukraine is as a launching-pad for NATO missiles against Moscow, because Russia is the world's main military hold-out against control by the U.S. aristocracy, and America's aristocracy are eager to use taxpayers' money, which is to say the U.S. military, to bring Russia to heel and within their economic control — it's then a freebie to them.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin is primarily concerned to avoid Ukraine having a Government that wants U.S. strategic (i.e., aimed against Moscow) missiles; in other words: he wants to avoid Ukraine's becoming a member of NATO — the anti-Russian military club of nations, which now surrounds Russia. The only way that he can achieve this crucial objective is for the far-eastern region of Ukraine, Donbass (the region shown in dark purple on this map), which had voted 90% for Yanukovych and 10% for America's candidate (Yulia Tymoshenko) in the 2010 Presidential election (the last election in which all parts of Ukraine voted), to remain as being voters in Ukrainian national elections, so as to counterbalance the anti-Russian northeastern half of Ukraine and thus avoid any more nazis being elected to national power in Ukraine.

Donbass is the region where Obama's Ukrainian Government is trying to exterminate the residents (whom they call 'Terrorists' and try to kill in their "Anti Terrorist Operation" there, fooling the western Ukrainian public that those are "Terrorists" instead of simply Donbass's residents, the people who live there). If Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, or whomever the U.S. supports, doesn't succeed at exterminating or else driving out the residents in Donbass, then Ukraine's Government will probably not be able to join NATO and bring in its strategic missiles aimed at Russia — which is what this is all about, from the standpoint of Barack Obama: it's part of surrounding Russia with NATO missiles .

Looking at that draft agreement, it seems to meet Putin's basic national-security needs for Russia. Doubass's people would retain their right to vote for Ukraine's President.

In order for him to do this, it is essential for the breakaway region to stay within Ukraine as regards the voters there participating in future elections for Ukraine's President. As I headlined on 19 September 2014, "Russia's Leader Putin Rejects Ukrainian Separatists' Aim to Become Part of Russia." The current draft agreement meets this Russian-national-security need. As I commented at that time: "Perhaps Putin's declining to accept Ukrainian territory into Russia is part of an agreement between the two leaders in which Obama is, for his part, declining the urgings from congressional Republicans and conservative Democrats for the U.S. to provide weapons to the Ukrainian military to expedite their ethnic cleansing campaign." However, if U.S. President Obama goes ahead with the Republicans' position, of sending lethal weapons to Ukraine, then the United States will end up becoming internationally isolated, unless either Merkel, or Hollande, or both, declare that Putin is failing to comply with the new agreement, and rejoin with the United States in its ethnic-cleansing effort to eliminate the residents in the separatist region, "Donbass," which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk republics.

So, although Putin has won this opening round of obtaining a new peace agreement, Obama still yet can win in the later stages and increase the ethnic cleansing, if either Merkel or Hollande abandon Putin.

The draft agreement also includes other features that would be necessary for the economic reconstruction of the Donbass region, which the Ukrainian Government has been bombing in its ethnic cleansing campaign. For the first time (if the initial statements from the IMF become borne out in additional 'loans' actually taxpayer donations, to Ukraine), Western taxpayers will be contributing to that economic reconstruction, which will be vast, especially considering that around 50,000 civilians and soldiers have probably thus far been slaughtered in Obama's ethnic-cleansing campaign there, and more than a million residents have fled and become refugees (mainly in Russia), and the cities and villages have been bombed and even firebombed. So, while some aristocrats may have gained from Obama's coup, taxpayers in the West will now be paying tens of billions to undo some of the economic damage that Obama and the U.S. Congress (especially Republicans there ) have caused in Ukraine by means of the coup and of its essential ethnic-cleansing aftermath. Since 'we' taxpayers (the public) caused the war (from which only some international aristocrats might benefit — and those were the people behind it), we (and not those aristocrats) shall be cleaning up from it — if the current deal doesn't fall apart and the damages from the war thus soar even further.

But, at least in the first draft of this agreement, Putin has won, and Obama has lost.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of , and of .

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Health conscious? You are the new "Conspiracy Theorist"

Remember when the fictitious notion of "conspiracy theorist" was supposed to represent the lone wolf weird lunatic in a dark basement? Believe it or not, this stereotype character never actually existed. That's right, the basement lunatic conspiracy theorist was a fictional character invented by government, media and Hollywood ( ).

The propaganda began at least a century ago, accelerated after the creation of the CIA and became more pronounced targeting American people after the JFK assassination as described in CIA document 1035-960. Specifically the techniques, which we see employed today all the time by mainstream media and CIA assets/online trolls, include:

• No significant new evidence has emerged which the [Warren] Commission did not consider.


• Critics usually overvalue particular items and ignore others.


• Conspiracy on the large scale often suggested would be impossible to conceal in the United States.


• Critics have often been enticed by a form of intellectual pride: they light on some theory and fall in love with it.


• Oswald would not have been any sensible person's choice for a co-conspirator.


• Such vague accusations as that "more than ten people have died mysteriously" [during the Warren Commission's inquiry] can always be explained in some natural way e.g.: the individuals concerned have for the most part died of natural causes.

Today of course, we need only to remove the references to JFK in this document and insert the current issue of the time and this document comes to life nicely. Remember, government and its globalist masters sit around and have meetings to decide what topics will fall under the banner of "conspiracy theory" and which will not. To anyone wide awake it's much simpler to understand it this way: If a story or accusation interferes with the final new world order plans then it's a "conspiracy", if it doesn't then it's a different point of view or a debate.

The first thing everyone should understand about conspiracy theories is that you don't get to decide what topics fall under this category, they do. And because they (government) decide, we've now seen the subjective, fictitious, propaganda-based definition of "conspiracy theorist" morph dramatically over the last few decades. As mentioned before, we were first led to believe that conspiracy theorists were lunatics in basements separated from society, claiming things that were not proven while actually being wrong about everything. These people were supposed to have been essentially mentally diseased.

The conspiracy theorist then evolved into anyone who questioned 9/11 or any other new world order related false flag event. For years CIA's mainstream media had worked hard to give the perception that "conspiracy theorist" represented a tiny percentage of Americans. But as the years went by, millions all over the U.S. and the world started waking up, and now the government and its media mouthpiece started feeling the pressure. The dilemma was, and still is, how to portray this growing number of awakened individuals / "conspiracy theorists" as an insignificant small group of people, while at the same time adding more and more people to the group by deliberately expanding the topics that make you a conspiracy theorist.

The dilemma of this situation was finally addressed by CIA's in a desperate article by Kurt Eichenwald May of 2014 entitled . In the article, Eichenwald, with seeming foreknowledge of the measles vaccine dilemma that was coming later in the year as a result of CDC whistleblower Dr William W Thompson's testimony admitting the measles vaccine link to autism in African American children, had this to say about the measles (exposed) vaccine:

In 2008, no one in America caught measles and 13,278 people contracted whooping cough. By 2013, measles infected at least 276 people in the U.S. and there were more than 24,000 cases of whooping cough. Medical experts attribute this trend to declining numbers of people being vaccinated, in large part fueled by a belief that doctors and pharmaceutical companies are hiding the dangers of immunizations to protect profits, even though earnings in this niche are so comparatively small that six out of seven companies have dropped out of the business in the past 35 years. Now, because of this false belief advanced by scientific frauds and celebrities, vaccine-preventable diseases that were once on the brink of extinction are roaring back.

Eichenwald rolls on explaining:

George W. Bush murdered thousands by orchestrating 9/11. Barack Obama is a Kenyan national and holds the presidency illegally. Education standards developed by state governors are part of an anti-Christian communist plot that will turn children gay. Unemployment rates and the reported numbers for Obamacare sign-ups are lies engineered by the White House. Water fluoridation doesn't prevent cavities in children and has been adopted for a range of nefarious purposes. And on and on they go.

Conspiracy theories have been woven into the fabric of American society since before the signing of the Constitution. But what was once dismissed as the amusing ravings of the tin-foil-hat crowd has in recent years crossed a threshold, experts say, with delusions, fictions and lunacy now strangling government policies and creating national health risks. "These kinds of theories have the effect of completely distorting any rational discussion we can have in this country,'' says Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center who recently wrote a report on the impact of what is known as the Agenda 21 conspiracy. "They are having a real impact now."

Experts say the number and significance of conspiracy theories are reaching levels unheard-of in recent times, in part because of ubiquitous and faster communications offered by Internet chat rooms, Twitter and other social media. "Conspiracy narratives are more common in public discourse than they were previously,'' says Eric Oliver, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago who has published research on the phenomenon. "We seem to have crossed a threshold."

The fears about Agenda 21 are a prime example. The name refers to a nonbinding statement of intent signed in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush and 177 other world leaders. The idea was simple: Under the auspices of the U.N., those countries expressed their interest in managing urban development and land-use policies in ways that minimized the impact on the environment. At the time, mainstream conservative and liberal politicians considered the concept to be fairly inconsequential.

As can be seen, the article identifies such a wide spectrum of beliefs under the new "conspiracy theory" umbrella that one might suspect this could arguably represent 75-99% of Americans. The list is long and includes anyone who doesn't agree with Agenda 21, Common Core, the Bin Laden death hoax, the dangers of cell phones and more. So many are the topics that the average American could and would potentially find at least one belief to agree with on the list, thus officially making them a "conspiracy theorist".

The only strategy Eichenwald and the CIA fall back on is the notion that, yes, we admit a lot of people are suffering from the mental disease of conspiracy theories (translation: waking up), and because this large amount of people (who are waking up) are starting to represent a possible majority, they are a "danger" to America (translation: The new world order plans). Thus, in this article the globalists and their CIA-approved writer are on the one hand admitting that everyone is waking up, while at the same time still appealing to their audience that essentially everyone is crazy and dangerous but you can still be "normal" by obeying.

This is proof that a lot more people are awake than the media is willing to admit. Sadly, the ongoing agenda of CIA's mainstream media and government is not letting up by any means in 2015 and beyond as can be seen by the media almost psychopathic attack on those who want to seek a healthy lifestyle.

We are regularly now seeing those who DON'T want to ingest fluoride into their bodies accused of being conspiracy nuts. Anyone who understands the compounds in vaccines admitted by the CDC and doesn't want those toxins to go into their body is now a conspiracy theorist nut. Anyone who doesn't want to eat genetically modified organisms and damage their own DNA, or even take the chance of damaging their own DNA is now a conspiracy theorist. Just the element of not having faith in corporate cronies and dirty lying corrupt politicians is enough to get you on the conspiracy theorist list.

The definition of conspiracy theorist has in fact reached new levels never imagined by the average person. Simply wanting to eat only natural food and not take in any known toxins into your body of any kind (above and beyond vaccines), according to CIA's mainstream media and government, is enough to get you labeled as a conspiracy theorist nut.

Yes, we are finally reaching a point in history where it is almost officially impossible to not be a conspiracy theorist unless you agree to being poisoned! This is what happens when a state who has open plans for a new world order and massive stated depopulation goals can control reality with their ministry of truth propaganda media.

If there is anything good to take from all this it is that with stupid moves like this the corporate media will hopefully turn more and more people against it. Obviously everyone wants to live a happy, healthy life. Why would we not? If there is even a tiny chance that genetically modified foods and vaccines with known toxins in them could harm you, why would we not want to exercise our own personal judgment on whether or not we want this for our kids, our loved ones and ourselves??

Reason for hope

The pure insanity of the new world order psychopaths is truly upon us and we are seeing them in action in real-time. So many of us are awake and we all know we will never go along with any of this monkey business. Our duty is, therefore, to continue waking up as many people as possible. Our voices are strong and getting stronger every day, while their voices (the mainstream media) are dying.

Spread the word, tell your family and friends that they are all "conspiracy theorists" if they believe in health. Let's make sure this is the (hopefully) final Intelligence blunder of the globalists. The blunder of thinking they could take over our own bodies, tell us what to eat and even what to inject into our own bodies. Hopefully the magnitude of this personal psychological insult will be the final straw to break the new world order's back.

Hopefully humanity is observing, reading, learning and taking notes. We are all now getting a blueprint for tyranny. We've seen all the steps in slow motion. We now know all their moves. Let's take advantage of this bold yet ridiculous expansion of "conspiracy theorist" and see how far we can take the awakening process this time. Most important of all, let's not forget that this battle of information does have an ending date. Perhaps this is the beginning of the end for the Orwellian empire of deceit that seeks permanent world power.

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The Century of the Self.

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Mega-drought: US Southwest faces worst water shortage in 1,000 years

© www.nature.com

The future of Southwestern farming?

Southwestern USA could be set for its worst drought in 1,000 years because of climate change. Numerous states have experienced severe water shortages, with 64 million people affected. Researchers say things could get worse.

The arid conditions in the southwest of the United States and the Great Plains have been caused by higher temperatures, while ground water supplies are shrinking. Studies by scientists using computer models show that the US could be in for its worst droughts since the 12th and 13th centuries.

© earthobservatory.nasa.gov

Progressing drought regions of Southwest USA.

"The 21st-century projections make the [previous] mega-droughts seem like quaint walks through the Garden of Eden," said Jason Smerdon, who was a co-author of the paper, which was published in the journal and is also a climate scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

Ben Cook, from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, also helped to write the paper added that Americans may have to get used to droughts as a way of life. "These mega-droughts during the 1100s and 1200s persisted for 20, 30, 40, 50 years at a time, and they were droughts that no one in the history of the United States has ever experienced," he said in a press release. "The droughts that people do know about like the 1930s 'dustbowl' or the 1950s drought, or even the ongoing drought in California, and the southwest today - these are all naturally occurring droughts that are expected to last only a few years or perhaps a decade. Imagine instead the current California drought going on for another 20 years," Cook added.

To aid their research, the scientists used data which they retrieved from tree rings. They were able to determine how much precipitation had fallen and how much moisture was in the ground as the rings were wider during wetter years. "The surprising thing to us was really how consistent the response was over these regions, nearly regardless of what model we used or what soil moisture metric we looked at," Cook said in the press release.

It has long been accepted by scientists that the southwest and the Great Plains will become arid during the second half of the 21st century as a consequence of climate change. However, this process is being accelerated due to the increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Precipitation levels can be misleading the authors of the report said. Rainfall levels could remain the same as non-drought years, but an increase in temperature means more water is evaporated.

California saw record amounts of rainfall in December 2014, though this has not been enough to fill up water supplies across the state. Crucially, snowfall amounts have been low, which has made it difficult to replenish reservoirs and underground aquifers. NASA says satellite images show the Sierra Nevada range snowpack is half the amount of past estimates.

According to the United States Geological Survey, California uses around 2.5 trillion gallons of water per year, which equates to around 181 gallons per person, per day. However, NASA says 11 trillion more gallons needs to enter the water supply to help elevate the current water shortages the population is experiencing.

"All the things we were hoping wouldn't happen five to 10 years ago are happening and I don't think we have sounded the alarm fast enough, said Stephanie Castle, a researcher at the University of California-Irvine, told . The problem is only likely to get worse in the southwest due to increasing demands for water, which will put an increased strain on low underground water supplies.

Since the turn of the millennium, parts of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas have all experienced drought like conditions for 11 of those years. According to NASA, as many as 64 million people have been affected by a lack of water. This could have a knock-on effect of not just inconveniencing people's lives through the introduction of water rationing and hosepipe bans, but could also affect key economic areas such as farming and agriculture in the Great Plains.

"Human populations in this region, and their associated water resources demands, have been increasing rapidly in recent decades, and these trends are expected to continue for years to come. Future droughts will occur in a significantly warmer world with higher temperatures than recent historical events, conditions that are likely to be a major added stress on both natural ecosystems and agriculture," the report concluded.

A report published in the journal of the stated that average annual temperature is expected to increase by up to 5 percent by 2100, with a corresponding increase in water reduction of 30 percent.

"I was honestly surprised at just how dry the future is likely to be," said another co-author Toby Ault, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University. "I look at these future mega-droughts like a slow moving natural disaster. We have to put mega-droughts into the same category as other natural disasters that can be dealt with through risk management."

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Saffron: The ancient flower that heals the human soul

So ancient a love affair exists between humans and saffron, that it can no longer reproduce without our help. Could its antidepressant and health-promoting properties be an example of saffron 'returning the favor'?

"Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul." ~ Luther Burbank

A alluring clue to how ancient the love affair between our species and saffron goes is that the plant known in Latin as cannot reproduce without human assistance. Sterile, incapable of producing viable seeds, its bulb-like, starch-storing organ (clustered in what are known as corms), must painstakingly dug up, broken into individual bulbs, and replanted by hand.

As we discussed in a previous article about this truly magical flower,

"50,000 year-old depictions of prehistoric places in northwest Iran contained saffron-based pigments, indicating the human relationship with saffron is as old as time itself."

A Minoan goddess supervising saffron use

What would have inspired this relationship? What would have compelled ancient farmers and herbalists to perpetuate, unbroken, this plant's life cycle for thousands of generations? Is this an example of co-evolutionary interdependence?

Still today, it takes a Herculean effort to produce enough saffron to meet the global demand, that is barely met. One hundred and fifty hand-picked flowers still yields just 1,000 mg (0.035 oz) of dry saffron threads, and costs approximately $1,000 U.S. dollars a pound on the global market; there is no questioning that our motivation to engage saffron as a primary plant ally is as powerful today as it was a thousand years ago.

There must be more to the human desire to produce and acquire saffron than its culinary role as a seasoning alone. Perhaps saffron possesses powerful medicinal and or psychoactive properties, capable of alleviating human suffering and/or brightening the human condition, that we are only now beginning to rediscover through the optic of modern scientific research....

Saffron: Plenty of Evidence for Appreciating Its Role as a Medicine Botanical

Indeed, our ongoing research indexing project at Greenmedinfo.com reveals saffron has over 40 therapeutic applications in medicine, preventing and/or treating conditions such as erectile dysfunction, macular degeneration, Alzheimer's disease, and even clinically diagnosed depression.

Notably, many of the conditions saffron seems to ameliorate are psychiatric, that is, address imbalances in the human psyche, soul.

"Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Flowers embody something truly wondrous about the design of the universe. They are what I would call an example of the universe's intrinsic superfluity (definition: "an unnecessarily or excessively large amount or number of something"), embodying a seemingly unnecessary excess of beauty. Flowers remind us that the fabric of reality is comprised of more than just atoms. There is poetry, abundance, and aesthetic inspiration built into the structure of things, as long as we have the eyes and sense to perceive it.

After all, reproduction - especially as described mechanically by modern biological science - doesn't need erotic engagement, scent, the simultaneity of touch, ecstasy, and all the synesthetic experiences associated with the first-hand experience of love-making; nor did Nature need color, scent, and the visually enchanting qualities of flowers for plants to fulfill their role in producing the next generation.

Saffron, I believe, is a perfect example of the 'benevolent excess,' as well as intelligence and compassion, built into the relationships between diverse species on this planet. When come to appreciate the divine order of things inscribed within the web of life, and the way in which species have spent hundreds of millions of years depending upon, appreciating, and supporting one another, clearly saffron's unique properties to ameliorate physical and psycho-spiritual suffering in humans should not be that surprising.

For additional evidence that plants express a type of compassion towards the human species, read my article: Turmeric's Healing Power: A Physical Manifestation of Compassion?

Why We Need Flowers

A 2005 human study performed at Rutgers University in NJ, titled " ", revealed that all study subjects responded positively in behavior and emotion to receiving flowers. As summarized by HortiDaily , the 10-week study revealed:

• Flowers have an immediate impact on happiness. All study participants expressed "true" or "excited" smiles upon receiving flowers, demonstrating extraordinary delight and gratitude. This reaction was universal, occurring in all age groups.


• Flowers have a long-term positive effect on moods. Specifically, study participants reported feeling less depressed, anxious and agitated after receiving flowers, and demonstrated a higher sense of enjoyment and life satisfaction.

The paper itself provides an interesting co-evolutionary explanation for why flowers have such a powerful mood-enhancing effect:

"Our hypothesis is that cultivated flowers fit into an emotional niche - their sensory properties elicit human positive emotions. The flowering plants are thereby rewarding to humans and in return, the cultivated flowers receive propagation that only humans can provide. Demonstration of such a phenomenon fills several gaps in the literature. It supports the basic significance of emotion for survival. As a corollary it supports the adaptive function of positive as well as negative emotion. Finally it opens an area of investigation into the psychological relationships between humans and other species through their sensory properties that have been relatively neglected."

The paper also draws an interesting parallel between flower-human and flower-dog co-evolution:

"We hypothesize that as flowers moved into the new niche created by agriculture there was an increase in variation and the more pleasing and attracting flowers were allowed to remain. At some point humans might have moved from merely tolerating these weedy species to actively saving and sowing the seeds. It has not escaped our attention that the scenario we present for the evolution of flowers is very much like the scenario that Budiansky (1994) presents for the evolution of dogs. Flowers may be the plant equivalent of companion animals." [emphasis added]

The Evidence For Saffron As An Antidepressnt Drug Alternative

So, what is the evidence to support the notion that flowers, and saffron, elevates the human spirit, contributes to happiness and well-being?

There is a rather extensive body of human clinical literature on its role in treating depression, with a recent meta-analysis of the literature concluding: ^[1]

Also, a study reported about on Life Extension reveals that saffron is as at least as effective as the blockbuster pharmaceutical drug Prozac for treating mild to moderate depression:

At the close of the 6-week, double-blind, randomized trial, saffron was found to be as effective as Prozac® in the treatment of mild to moderate depression. There were no significant differences in unwanted reactions.

How Can A Flower Can Do This?

I believe that saffron's power to lift the human spirit may demonstrate the intelligent design woven into the co-evolutionary relationship between certain interdependent species. After all, mammals and angiosperms (the flowering plants) which comprise about 250,000 species and include most of the plants that provide the modern world its diet, co-evolved for at least 200 million years together, eventually rising to become dominant life forms on this planet. In other words, we are designed to need one another, and in one another's absence, something goes missing -- a piece of ourselves, our psyche, without which we can not be whole, healthy and holy [all 3 words share the same etymological root].

Regardless of the exact mechanical explanation operative between saffron and human physiology, we now have the optic of modern experimental and clinical research to confirm that ancient plant medicines like saffron are effective at alleviating suffering. Considering that saffron is a culinary herb, safely used the world over, and can be used as a spice in everyday cooking, it would best to incorporate it not as heroic herbal intervention long after depression has established itself as a diagnosed disorder, but beforehand as a preventive to enjoy and appreciate in meals lovingly prepared and shared.

References

^[1] Heather Ann Hausenblas, Debbie Saha, Pamela Jean Dubyak, Stephen Douglas Anton. Saffron (.) and major depressive disorder: a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. J Integr Med. PMID: 24299602

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Which is the greater threat? Measles or the Measles Vaccine?

© EU Observer

A recent measles outbreak at Disneyland of at least 70 cases (Jan 2015) has created quite a stir in the media. Five of the cases were fully vaccinated, indicating the measles vaccine confers only temporary immunity. Clearly there is no "failure to vaccinate", as measles has broken out in highly vaccinatedpopulations. It is obviously a failure of the vaccine. Unlike the vaccine, real measles infection confers life-long immunity.

In 2008, a similar resurgence in measles cases was reported. An increase in reported cases of measles from 42 to 131 prompted a 2008 editorial warning of re-emergence of "many diseases" if vaccination rates drop. A quote from the :

"If confidence in all vaccines were to drop precipitously, many diseases would re-emerge and cause far more harm than could possibly result from vaccination."

Confidence in Vaccines Has Been Lost

Unfortunately, confidence in vaccines has already been lost according to Shona Hilton in her article,"Who do parents believe about MMR". According to Shona Hilton, young parents are mistrustful of the media and the pediatricians who have financial incentives to push vaccines.

What is the Evidence for an Autism/ Vaccine Link?

© AP PHOTO W.A.HAREWOOD

Hannah Poling and father courtesy of Scientific American

The Hanna Poling Case

In the case of Hannah Poling, the federal vaccine court has agreed to compensate Poling's family, conceding that her autism was caused by vaccination. The federal court has already paid out more than $1.5 billion for vaccine related injury or death.

Italian Court Conceded MMR Caused Autism

In 2012, the Italian Health Ministry conceded the MMR vaccine caused autism in nine-year-old Valentino Bocca. Exactly how many other cases exist is unknown because court records are usually sealed from public view.

Abnormal MMR Antibody Response in Autistic Kids

An important finding was found in a 2002 report in by Dr. Singh entitled .

The authors found elevated antibody levels to MMR (Measles Mumps Rubells Vaccine) in 60% of autistic children, none in controls. The elevated MMR antibodies in autistic children detected "measles HA protein", which is unique to the measles subunit of the vaccine. Over 90% of the autistic children with elevated MMR antibodies, also had elevated MBP (myelin basic protein) antibodies, suggesting a strong association between MMR and CNS autoimmunity in autism. The authors state:

"Stemming from this evidence, we suggest that an inappropriate antibody response to MMR, specifically the measles component thereof, might be related to pathogenesis of autism."

"In light of these new findings, we suggest that a considerable proportion of autistic cases may result from an atypical measles infection that does not produce a rash but causes neurological symptoms in some children. The source of this virus could be a variant MV or it could be the MMR vaccine."

A second paper in 2003 by the same group confirmed these findings: Singh, Vijendra K., and Ryan L. Jensen. 28.4 (2003): 292-294.

Bernadine Healy MD

According to Bernadine Healy MD, Director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) in 1991, there is credible published, peer-reviewed scientific studies that support the idea of an association between autism and vaccines. Rather than oppose all vaccinations, Dr Healy suggests modifying the vaccination schedule to make them safer.

How to Make the Vaccine Schedule Safer?

Don Miller MD in this article on Lew Rockwell, provides a safer vaccination schedule. For example, the vaccination schedule can be made safer by waiting until child's immune system is better developed after age 2, by moving from the combined MMR shot to individual doses, avoiding thimerosol, and avoiding the live vaccines.

Which is the Greater Threat Autism or Measles?

While the number of autism cases are increasing, measles cases are decreasing.

Measles Mortality Decreasing

© wikimedia

Left chart Increasing autism cases:Reports of autism cases per 1,000 children grew dramatically in the U.S. from 1996 to 2007.

Mortality from measles decreased in US and UK from 1900 to 1963, even before first vaccines were introduced in 1963. (see below charts courtesy of Measles and measles vaccines fourteen things to consider by Roman Bystrianyk )

Mortality from measles in the US.

Mortality from measles in the UK

Introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963 was successful. The measles vaccine (live virus) reduced the number of measles cases, and prevented about 100 deaths per year. Prior to 1963, mortality from measles had already dropped to low levels from improved living standards, better nutrition, and and sanitary measures.

Regressive Autism Caused by the MMR Shot - Dr Don Miller

Don Miller MD writes,

"Since the measles vaccine came into widespread use in this country this disease has virtually disappeared, and it has prevented 100 deaths a year. But now, instead, several thousand normally developing children become autistic after receiving their MMR shot. Termed "regressive autism," it accounts for about 30 percent of the 10,000 to 20,000 children who are diagnosed with autism in this country each year."

A User Friendly Vaccine Schedule from Don Miller MD:

1. avoid vaccines containing thimerosal, which is 50 percent mercury.


2. avoid vaccines that contain live viruses. This includes the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine; chickenpox (varicella) vaccine, and the live-virus polio (Sabin) vaccine.


3. Wait until age of two to start, then vaccinate no more than once every six months, one at a time, in order to allow the immune system sufficient time to recover and stabilize between shots.

Vitamin A and measles

Numerous medical publications have shown health benefits for Vitamin A in treatment of measles.

Conclusion

Clearly, there is a trade off in terms of benefits and risks of vaccines. Rather than deny the adverse effects of vaccines, we should be openly discussing how to make the vaccine schedule safer, as Don Miller MD and Bernadine Healy MD suggest.

Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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Arson not ruled out in fire at Islamic center in Texas

© Screenshot from youtube video by amazing videos

A building at an Islamic institute in Houston, Texas burst into flames shortly before members began arriving for morning prayers at the campus' mosque. Now investigators are trying to determine whether arson is to blame for the blaze.

The fire broke out in a vacant building on the Quba Islamic Institute campus in southeast Houston early Friday morning. Heavy smoke filled the air as flames flared from the roof.

[embedded content]

Kenyatta Parker, a spokesman for the Houston Fire Department, said up to 25 firefighters responded to the 5:35 a.m. alarm, extinguishing the flames by 6:20 a.m.

"We got it before it got out of control," Parker said. No injuries were reported, he told the .

The institute had recently bought the building, and was planning to turn it into a community center and a place for children to study Islam, Zahid Abdullah, the mosque's imam, told KHOU.

When asked about a potential cause for the blaze, Parker replied, "We have no idea yet."

This early in the investigation, officials have no reason to believe the fire was intentionally set, Parker said.

But members of the Islamic center said that arson is suspected.

Ahsan Zahid, the 25-year-old son of Quba's imam, told the that arson investigators with the Houston Fire Department told him that an accelerant was used in the fire.

There are currently two working theories that are being pursued, Zahid said: Either the fire was started to intentionally damage the building or it was started by a homeless person who broke into the building because of the cold.

Prayers were set to begin at the institute at 6:15 a.m., as they do every day, according to the Quba website. Firefighters turned members away from the mosque.

"It says right on the sign Quba Islamic institute. We are not hiding ourselves," Hala Saadeh, a mosque member, told , wondering if the fire was started deliberately.

"A lot of people think like that, but like I said we don't know yet. Nobody knows actually. So once they clear here, we will find out," said another mosque member.

Zahid said he was hopeful that the facility was not a target for hate crime. Leaders there are concerned that they may have been victims of Islamophobia, citing the recent shooting deaths of three Muslims in North Carolina, the reported.

Mosque members said that the fire would not deter them.

"We are a strong community, we'll just figure out what to. Build again," Yousuf Silah told .

Local arson investigators and agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were at the scene to gather evidence and determine the cause.

Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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Outcome of Minsk: Poroshenko given chance to rein in Kiev war faction, but will it work?

Imagine yourself as Petro Poroshenko for a minute: you fly in for a meeting, and you discover everyone is against you, the Europeans, the Russians, even the clever Belorussian with his little smile. The ally and patron is somewhere far away, behind an ocean. You have to run to make a phone call and get instructions. People are openly chuckling when you tell them there is no encirclement at Debaltsevo. They even ask you to leave the room so that Putin, Merkel, and Hollande can speak. You can't believe in the outcome of the negotiations, and even tell the media that "all is lost." A disaster.

But you still remember that your victory can easily be transformed into treachery, and you yourself can be deprived of power and even life. You have to save face, since you are not independent and don't have any genuine power. Your competitor in Dnepropetrovsk already opened a parallel General Staff, and the efforts to disperse the Aidar failed completely. You even destroyed the coalition when you tried to make your friend/godfather the Prosecutor General.

So it's better not to return at all without an agreement. It's even more important not to return without an advantageous agreement. But there isn't one. Because they put in front of you a compromise, and you had to sign on.

Holland and Merkel are beaming, because the plan worked and they believe in its implementation.

But only Lukashenko and Putin, and the DPR/LPR representatives understand what's really going on.

Can you imagine how Poroshenko is supposed to issue orders to the Debaltsevo group after many of its officers had fled? If even Poltorak says that there is no encirclement. How are the Ukrainian soldiers to return to the demarcation line if they are encircled? Breaking out - means violating the ceasefire, staying put means death and capitulation.

You break the ceasefire and Minsk-2 collapses. But try to imagine how these measures are to be implemented.

First. Are the radicals going to agree to pay salaries to the "supporters of terrorism" on Donbass? For them salary non-payment is a victory over Putin.

Second. How do you intend to resurrect the Donbass special status law, after it was voided by the radicals in the Rada?

Third. How is Poroshenko going to command the territorial battalions and volunteer battalions, which are not under his control?

Fourth. How is he going to force his artillerymen to stop shelling Donbass cities?

Fifth. How is Poroshenko going to explain the troop withdrawal?

The answer is simple. He won't. The provisions of the Minsk agreement are impossible to fulfill.

Incidentally, neither Kiev nor the republics plan to cancel their mobilizations. Units will be brought back to strength, and the republics' mobilization is going somewhat better than Kiev's. The war will inevitably continue, but the republics are in a better starting position than Kiev.

Therefore the outcome will be as follows: the ceasefire is temporary and will be violated. It only extends the death throes of the Kiev regime and of Ukraine as a state.

J.Hawk's Comments: Lizan outlines Poroshenko's quandary quite well, but in fact the situation is even worse for him.

For starters, Poroshenko clearly expected that the Minsk meeting would consist of The Leaders of the Free World (Poroshenko included) bringing "Putler's aggression" to heel.

Instead it turned out to be Vlad and Friends putting the hurt on Poroshenko. From just observing the facial expressions and the body language, it was clear that he was on the receiving end of some serious pressure. Lavrov's comment that the negotiations were going "better than super" was an early indication that Poroshenko walked into an ambush. What was the ambush intended to accomplish?

It would appear that Vlad's Friends want Poroshenko to deal firmly with the Party of War in Kiev. It must have dawned on Merkel and Hollande (though the latter probably suspected this already) that the Kiev junta's survival plan consists solely of hoping to provoke a large-scale conflict with Russia that would trigger a new Cold War on the European continent, and result in Ukraine being an "advanced forpost of the Western civilization", an Israel of Eastern Europe of sorts, which in turn would mean billions and billions of dollars of economic and military aid. And the junta has no other plan. It never had any other plan. Its objective from the start was to provoke Russia (starting with "FSB snipers on the Maidan" and the moves to transfer the Sevastopol naval base to the US Navy) into doing something.

Well, they succeeded. Russia "did something". It was only then that they discovered their miscalculation—the West does not have billions laying around to spend on cleptocratic Ukrainians with delusions of grandeur. Undaunted, they continued to escalate the situation, until the Europeans finally decided to step in, lest a full-scale great power war erupt on the European continent. First they apparently successfully convinced the Biden administration to kindly butt out by categorically ruling out deliveries of weapons to Ukraine. Then they pulled the plug on Kiev.

Poroshenko's "mission impossible," as it was evidently communicated to him by Hollande and Merkel, is to rein in the "war party" in Kiev by any means possible and then get on with destroying, excuse me, reforming the Ukrainian economy, Greece-style. It's no longer self-evident that any violation of the ceasefire will be automatically blamed on Novorossia or Russia, as it was in the past. It is totally self-evident that no IMF credits will be forthcoming unless Poroshenko finally starts acting in a responsible manner. Moreover, considering what conditions are invariably attached to IMF credits, Ukraine's ability to wage war will likely quickly decline due to the draconian budget cuts. Whatever Yatsenyuk had planned for this year will likely be significantly reduced if Yaresko is to convince Western donors Ukraine is serious about cutting government spending, and at the moment defense is where most of the money is.

So yes, by all means, try to put yourself into Poroshenko's shoes at this point. His best chance is to convince the "war party" that their best chance is to help him stay in power. This line of argument has the benefit of having considerable merit to it, because should the Right Sector/Turchinov/whoever topple Poroshenko, would the new junta count on any support from the West?

Probably not, but do Yarosh and Turchinov realize it? The assumption Poroshenko and other sponsors of the Maidan made in unleashing the neo-Nazis on Ukraine's political scene was that billions of dollars of Western aid would improve the situation in the country to such an extent that these movements would be starved of popular support. Instead, due to the deteriorating situation and the two lost military campaigns, they are gaining in strength, and their main enemy no longer is located in Donbass.

Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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