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Hello 

Is anyone on here skilled with locating things, or being able to see what happened to something? I am needing some help and will greatly appreciate any that can be given.

http://www.pcrm.org/news/release060727.html

WASHINGTON—A low-fat vegan diet treats type 2 diabetes more effectively than a standard diabetes diet and may be more effective than single-agent therapy with oral diabetes drugs, according to a study in the August issue of Diabetes Care, a journal published by the American Diabetes Association. Study participants on the low-fat vegan diet showed dramatic improvement in four disease markers: blood sugar control, cholesterol reduction, weight control, and kidney function. The randomized controlled trial was conducted by doctors and dieticians with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), the George Washington University, and the University of Toronto with funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Diabetes Action Research and Education Foundation.


Here is the study:

http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/29/8/1777?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexacttitle=and&andorexacttitleabs=and&fulltext=vegan+diet&andorexactfulltext

I got this daily tip today and thought I would share. 


http://www.drweil.com/u/DT/DailyTip3348/
Daily Tip
Growing a Garden


Each Sunday in August we will devote the Daily Tip to the benefits of gardening. Enjoy!

Gardening is a great way to connect with the earth, reduce stress, increase creativity and promote relaxation. Three good reasons you should get down and dirty in a garden:

Gardening is therapeutic. There is even an emerging medical art known as horticultural therapy. People with all types of health conditions, schoolchildren, even prison inmates, are encouraged to learn about new plants and envision creative ways to arrange them in the ground as a way to provide a sense of accomplishment and improve self-image.

Gardening is spiritual. Aside from delighting your senses with color, texture and scents, gardening enables you to connect with nature. Digging your hands through the soil and handling delicate plants can feed the soul.

Gardening is exercise. Gardening is a low-impact activity that improves flexibility through bending and stretching, and has been shown to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. However, don't let it replace your walking regime or other regular aerobic exercise - do both, for maximum benefits.

I think he left one off though. You get to eat the fruits of your labor.

http://www.vnunet.com/computing/news/2161836/kacers-crack-biometric

Biometric passports used by the UK, US and other countries have been cloned by a German security consultant, raising further doubts over the £415m UK scheme.

Lukas Grunwald, a consultant with DN-Systems, told a Defcon security conference in Las Vegas that the data, stored on RFID chips, could be copied on to blank chips which could then be used in fake passports.

...

One thing that is constant is change.

The new look for the forums is interesting. I think I like it. The karma rating is cool.

Hello!
I have not been around in a long time (if anyone remembers me) and the Astral Pulse popped into my mind recently so I thought I would stop by and see what has been going on. I hope everyone is doing well.

I find it amusing that on a forum such as this the spell checker does not recognize chakra as a word, yet Microsoft Word does.  

Hi  

I am looking for a yoga DVD that gives a short work out, around 20 - 40 minutes. Can anyone suggest anything that is good? I already have a DVD that I love but it is kind of long at over an hour and this is not usually very practical for me to do during the week. I find that I wind up not doing it even though I would really like to simply because of a lack of time. So I am wanting to find something that is shorter so I will actually be able to fit it in during the work week.

Any help and suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you

National Park Service
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/air/WebCams/index.htm

Monterey Bay Aquarium
http://www.mbayaq.org/efc/cam_menu.asp

I knew I would get your attention.  

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6620768/

Legislating your sex life
A search of sex laws turns up some surprises

Duane Hoffmann / MSNBC  
By Brian Alexander
Contributor
MSNBC
Updated: 3:12 p.m. ET Dec. 2, 2004

News of the illness of Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist has raised the issue of how President George Bush might change the Supreme Court. What does this have to do sex?

Well, when it comes to sexual expression, a lot of people say, "There oughta be a law!" And politically powerful crusaders are already salivating over the possibilities. Concerned Women for America (CWA), for example, said last year that anal sex ought to be banned: "If we were really compassionate, we would be putting sodomy laws back on the books, not removing them."

In fact, according to a search of state criminal code databases, there are already laws, lots of laws, regulating even private sexual expression. You might find some of them surprising.

Occasionally, the surprises stem from the legislative zeal to be thorough. In Texas, for example, "public lewdness" is against the law. No surprise there. But you can commit public lewdness even in private if you are "reckless about whether another is present who will be offended or alarmed" by, among other things, an "act involving contact between the person's mouth or genitals and the anus or genitals of an animal or fowl." Apparently, as long as nobody's offended or alarmed, Rhode Island Red better watch out.  

What's indecent?
States also have a wide variety of definitions for such things as public indecency. In Indiana, for example, you might be indecent if your male genitals are completely covered but "in a discernibly turgid state."  

As a former adolescent male, this worries me.

If you're traveling with a lover, and you are not married to each other, but feeling in the mood, you'd better not rent a hotel room in North Carolina because "any man and woman found occupying the same bedroom in any hotel, public inn, or boardinghouse for any immoral purpose...shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor."

Sex under those circumstances would absolutely be "immoral" because, like many other states, North Carolina has laws against fornication whether you are in a hotel or just at home: "If any man and woman not being married to each other, shall lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed, and cohabit together, they shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor."

In Idaho, fornication can get you a $300 fine and six months in jail. But that's a piece of cake compared to the penalty for adultery -- up to a $1,000 fine and three years in the state pen.

If you're a man in Oklahoma, and you tell a virgin female you want to marry her, then you two commit fornication, you had better not change your mind about the marriage, Bub, or else you've committed a felony. You could go to jail for five years. Luckily, if you change your mind back again, and make an honest woman of her, all is forgiven.

Idaho, Indiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas are all conservative "red states." Massachusetts, on the other hand, is the ultimate "blue state," the state Bush accused of being full of "liberals" as if the state were a breeding ground for godless subversives. But it's got some doozy sex laws. Adultery could get you three years in state prison. Sell a dildo, do five years. (I've previously mentioned anti-vibrator laws in Texas.) The state even has a catch-all statute for any "unnatural and lascivious act with another person." The law doesn't say just what is unnatural or lascivious.

Maryland appears to outlaw just about everything except the missionary position between married men and women. The law prescribes 10 years for "any unnatural or perverted sexual practice" like, say, oral sex. Not only that, but, says the law, the state can indict you without naming the particular act it's accusing you of committing or even the manner in which you committed it.

Tough to enforce
For someone like me, who considers himself as law-abiding as any other good citizen, it feels strange to know I have committed felonies in several states, misdemeanors in many others, and that my accumulated jail time under laws I found in the databases is about 250 years.

For someone like me, who considers himself as law-abiding as any other good citizen, it feels strange to know I have committed felonies in several states, misdemeanors in many others, and that my accumulated jail time under laws I found in the databases is about 250 years.

Lucky for me, most of these laws are rarely, if ever, enforced. For one thing enforcement just isn't practical. Not only do the acts usually happen in private, but enforcing the laws would make the United States one vast prison.

As of June 2003, there is also a very real legal reason why the laws are not enforced. A Texas statute says: "A person commits an offense if he engages in deviate sexual intercourse with another individual of the same sex." (Some other states with such anti-sodomy laws can't bear to name the act. Instead, they use phrases like "the detestable and abominable crime against nature.") When police arrested two gay men having sex in their own home, the men fought the case all the way to the Supreme Court -- which is what got the CWA and other sex prohibitionists all riled up.

The resulting decision, Lawrence v. Texas, struck down the law. At the time, the ruling was considered a major victory for gay rights, but it also means states are, for now, very limited in how they can restrict private sexual behavior between consenting adults, gay or not.

The laws, though, are still on the books, lurking like land mines left over from a war. Why? Well, few legislators are willing to propose repealing them because nobody wants to be seen as "approving" of fornication or adultery or, my goodness, anal sex. Besides, there's no powerful rubberist lobby, or a rich PAC called Married People for Sodomy. But as the new legislative director for CWA has said, "You just don't mess with the conservative right!"

When Arizona decided to repeal some of its archaic sex laws in 2001, one crusading legislator struck back by proposing a law revoking the teaching credentials of any educator found to be a fornicator or to have committed "crimes against nature" like oral sex or anal sex. The governor received thousands of e-mails, most insisting the laws stay. She signed the repeal anyway.

Would-be regulators of sexual expression realize that the Lawrence decision could be reversed, giving those old, unenforced laws new teeth. Justice Antonin Scalia, who voted with the minority in Lawrence, wrote a scathing dissent which made it clear he favored the ability of states to forbid sexual expression they deemed immoral whether the proscribed behavior takes place in private or not. Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas voted with Scalia.  

Bush has said that Thomas and Scalia are his favorites on the court. It's possible that the president will name up to three new justices during his second term. That new court may very well decide that your sex life is the government's business after all.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4170152

Canada is the only G7 country to run seven consecutive surplus budgets. It has not run a federal deficit since 1996-97. The United States deficit is expected to reach $422 billion in 2004.


Obtained from http://www.canadianalternative.com/gettoknow/whycanada.cfm

What is this ActiveX junk and how can I stop my browser from constantly telling me that my security settings do not allow it? Here at work we use IE   and apparently they have it set to not allow ActiveX, which apparently is a security risk. But on most websites I go to I keep getting a warning that my settings do not allow it and the website may not display correctly (never had a problem with this). This pops up EVERY FREAKING TIME I go to these sites and usually several times on the site. It is freaking annoying! Maybe I just need to talk to them about using Firefox.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2004/11/15/glaucoma-screen041115.html

I do not know on whose part the problem is but I cannot vote in any polls. How are polls suppose to work now?

Watch out IE here comes Firefox.

http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,714129,00.html?cnn=yes

Could you please, please, pretty please ditch the audio notification when you get a private message. It seems to really slow down page loading, atleast for me on dial-up. Plus it is really annoying, especially if I don't want to check my private messages right away. I think the big flashing red box that says Private Message is enough notice. []

Thank you []

I was looking in the Planned Books & Works In Progress section on the main page and noticed that it does not look like it has been updated in a long time. The latest dates given are 2001. Adrian said in another post that a new book is planned to be released soon, but nothing is mentioned on that page. Is there nothing to really put on there, or does whoever is in charge of that page not care any more? Whatever happened to Robert's Kundalini book that was mentioned?

I know there is a Suggested Reading section but I feel the need to post this here because I am not sure how many people, especially new people to the forums, look at it or know of its existance. I feel this should be brought up here.

I have had the book Astral Dynamics for awhile now but just recently got around to actually reading most of it. What I want to say is, I STRONGLY suggest to anyone who is interested in AP/OBEs to read this book. I see many people coming to the forum asking where they should start. This book is the place to start. This book is so easy to read, unlike some that over complicate things or are too technical. Anyone can pick up this book and enjoy reading it reguardless of their knowledge. Granted that most of the information in the book can be found on this forum, but the book makes things much easier to someone that is new, or even experienced. Instead of searching for posts and asking questions and then waiting for answers it is all right there, easy to read and understand, and it covers more than you will probably find on the forums. Not only can it be read straight through but it clearly will make a great reference book for future use. Any amount of money you will pay for this book, which is usually between $13 - $25, is much less than it is really worth.

I just wanted to bring this up for all the new people who are looking for a place to start. Of coarse I am always willing to answer any questions if I can, no matter how basic.

Hi,

Which author(s)? Why not try the www.amazon.co.uk site or www.bol.com/ instead of the amazon.com one!

Cheers,


Stephen

I do not think that religion and spirituality are the same. They can be intertwined or totally separate. For me religion was a stepping stone into spirituality, but religion is no longer part of my spirituality. You could say that I am agnostic as far as dieties go, for I just don't know about that aspect. But I do think there is something beyond the physical existence.

So what's your sign?[]

I have noticed this too, Inguma. I am not sure why it does it but I don't think it has to do with just old posts. I have not really paid much attention to it lately because of this.

What?

I have seen this book at the bookstore but I just thought it was a children's fictional book. Is it in reality about Taoism?

Hi,

Thanks for the share and hope you you have a good break!

S []

Depends on the value of the information they know. If they know the location of a nuclear bomb set to go off in an hour, torture!!!

But I dont trust any government to judge the value of information correctly, so I would vote no. If allowed to torture at all, governments would torture for little information.

"I love to laugh. Hahaha! Long and loud and clear.  I love to laugh. Hahaha!  It's getting worse every year..."[]
-from the movie "Mary Poppins"

If you follow NEW you have nothing to fear. I do not think you can hurt yourself, atleast if you use common sense and don't push anything. If you feel pain or discomfort just slow down, maybe take a break and then work on the area slowly. Unless you really push it you won't have any problems.

Fallnangel,

My husband and I visited a UU church for a while.  We had a mixed experience.  I took a course that they offered which was why we attended for a while.  They believe that we should find out own truth, however, don't really seem to do any teaching so to speak.  It seemed mainly made up of people who were disillusioned with their religions of their youth.  

I was somewhat satisfied with this because I feel we should find out own truth, However, there were some very strange political things going on too.  

We live in the Washington DC area and perhaps this has something to do with our experience, however, the only opinions or dogma they seemed to express was those opinions of political nature.  My husband felt very alienated because one day when we were there, they introduced these triangles to add to your name tag which would represent whether you were tolerant of gays.  We both are, however, my husband felt that this had no relevance to the the spiritual growth of an individual.  My husband and I did not put these on our nametags because we felt it was irrelevent, however, through our decision, we got a feeling that if we didn't wear them, we were seen as intolerant of homosexuality. Additionally, my husband is pretty conservative in his political views and they were very openly left wing, expressing their political views in the middle of the church service.

Overall, mixed messages, they like to look like they are tolerant of all but when it came right down to it, if you deviated from their political ideas, you were somewhat alienated.

That's my take.

--Kerri

Vick's Vapor Rub should help with the pressure, or if you have one a humidifier.  For the cough I like to use honey, one because I like the taste better than cough syrup and two it coats the throat almost as well so it works pretty well as a substitute.  Hot tea can also work wonders for the cough.  I tend to use green tea but I would think any hot tea would still work.

Love and Light,
Link's Shadow

Saw that on AOL- A friend sent me the link. Good stuff. []

HOLY MACKEREL!, err I mean Catfish. [:O]

Nay []

Hi fallnangel77,

Have a Happy Birthday!! []

(p.s., we're a day apart, mine's Nov. 4) []

All the best,

Oh my god!!  You are anti-patriotic!!!  Terrorist!!! [:O]
Bush will use his super "patriot act" to secretly throw u in jail without any trial!!  [][]

Joking aside, I hate patriotism...  Basicaly it's "we are the best, screw the others"...  It's no different than street gangs... just at a country level.

In France, the closest would be a few hours of "civic education", where you learn that you live in a community and you should respect others...  Other than that, nope, not much brain washing here.  At least none that I can see; except for some far right extremist/racist minorities...

I would think its your computer, maby it could be your ISP.

[[xx(]Google didn't help at all, so I'll post at least what I THINK it is.A Sun Roof is the overhead window that can be opened.A Moon Roof is the overhead window that cannot be opened.I have no idea otherwise...we need some mechanics / car people in here [|)]~SqueekPS - My Explorer has a Sun Roof (under my definition) [] I loove it.]

[xx(]

Google didn't help at all, so I'll post at least what I THINK it is.

A Sun Roof is the overhead window that can be opened.

A Moon Roof is the overhead window that cannot be opened.

I have no idea otherwise...we need some mechanics / car people in here [|)]

~Squeek

PS - My Explorer has a Sun Roof (under my definition) []  I loove it.

yep! me, i have been one ever since it came out and i played it. it is so awesome. the reason is im a big zombie fan, i have always loved watching zombie movies too. do u think there should be another movie because i do. im also a silent hill fan and im really getting mad because thy havnt made a movie yet![] i love silent hill, their newest game is really cool!

thanx,
T_Kman0610

Does a female where a test-tube baby is implanted into his womb consider a virgin?

The mark of an extraordinary person is transcendance of hormonal/instinctive urges.

That goes for women and men alike!   I'm not talking about "fighting" the urge. . . when you fight an urge it only fights back anyway.  

Transcendance means "to rise above."  As a woman, I can rise above my instinctual need to "have a man" to feel safe and protected.  I can also choose to rise above my possessiveness, my gatherer (shopping) instinct, my need to hoard things or (s)mother/control my children.  

All these sex-stereotypes come from genuine hormonal/instinctive urges.  That doesn't mean we have to be ruled by them!

But remember . . . probably the most powerful need, besides the survival instinct, is the need to feel loved, needed, wanted, desired.  Both men and women do the stupidest, most mindless things in the blind search for these things, including infidelity - - - one of the most inflammatory and risky of human behaviors.  Truly a double-edged sword.  You might grasp at the golden ring . . . but lose the horse underneath you.

The following link is where he says why he was doing it.

http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5460