Muslims Are Converting to Christianity in Record Numbers

 This is actually incredible.  I had thought through a range of strategies able to produce this effect but all took at least the presumption of protection.

It turns out that the advent of true mass communication is allowing communities of the faithful to arise anywhere.  Throw in an occasional first hand conversation with Jesus or Mary and you have a completely fanatical convert quite prepared to die.  How do you argue with that.

Having nascent communities pop up out of the Islamic woodwork will be deeply discouraging to Islam itself.  

I would like to see a Koran published with all sentences not approved by Jesus properly red-lined and the New Testament attached as well.  This can be handed out to all Muslims and Christians as well as a copy of the Koran  for them to read.

Nothing like full disclosure.

There is much in the Koran worth saving as it is informed by the Judaic version of Christianity.  However, a great evil was folded into it and this needs to be clearly identified. 

Recall also that Jesus was a living master.  He escaped Israel and returned to India.  This means that he opened mind channels with his apostles and particularly with Paul who could write letters.  Thus he continuously guided the development of doctrine through Paul to produce the living church we now experience while he was alive in India.  This would have continued through 80 AD.

 

For those who have difficulty with what i just said, it is enough to understand that  living masters are alive today doing just this and you can actually confirm all this.

 

It is good to understand that Jesus remains active as spirit to his following and to see it so rudely made real to others.

 

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Muslims Are Converting to Christianity in Record Numbers

Nov. 17, 2017

How are so many conversions taking place in oppressive countries where proselytizing can bring a death sentence?


Patti Armstrong

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/armstrong/muslims-are-converting-to-christianity-in-record-numbers

“We are in a time of the first ever mass conversions of Muslims,” Father Mitch Pacwa SJ told me in a phone interview. “God is doing a mighty work among them.”

Pacwa is a host for EWTN radio and TV, a frequent pilgrim guide to the Holy Land and is fluent in 13 languages including Arabic. He is considered an expert on the Middle East and produced the DVD Christianity & Islam: Are We at War? and co-authored Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics.

Pacwa said he began hearing talk of conversions to Christianity around 2005 on Al Jazeera Television, the Arabic news satellite TV channel with 80 bureaus around the world. “They were reporting on the mass conversions of Muslims—as many as 6-8 million—in sub-Saharan, Africa, and they have repeated the warning every year,” he said. “I’ve confirmed it with Africans I know who have told me again and again about conversions in places like Nigeria, Uganda, Mali … that’s why Boko Haram has become so active. They are actually quite scared and trying to terrorize. But the very act of terrorizing people has ended up with people becoming more disgusted with Islam.”


Bad Public Relations

The violence of Islamic terrorists has made for bad PR, according to Pacwa. For instance, he recalled hearing someone on African TV say: “Al-Qaida attacks Americans by blowing up our embassies but we Africans are the ones that die in the attacks.” He suspects that Islam is at the beginning of a collapse, likening increased terrorism to the supernova stage where stars burn brightest just before they burn out.


Pacwa gave recent examples of heinousness retribution for rejecting Islam. “Not long ago I read about a boy who was a slave that snuck out to pray on Good Friday and was crucified for it,” he said. “I also heard about two Filipino maids that were caught with the New Testament and beheaded.”

Americans caught practicing Christianity in Muslim countries are usually expelled but according to Pacwa, it’s much different for citizens. “Fridays after the noon prayers is the day they cut off hands and heads from thieves, adulterers—women only—and people who commit blasphemy, and that would include converting to Christianity.”

Conversions Spreading


Yet, despite such risks, Pacwa said that mass conversions are happening even in very fundamentalist countries. There is rapidly growing number of conversions especially on the edges of the Muslim world in the western and southern parts of Africa, he said. “Africa is now growing predominantly Christian despite crackdowns,” Pacwa said.

Some of the noteworthy countries he mentioned include Iran, reported to have 3 million Christians, and Indonesia with reports of 2 million a year converting. (Here is a video of a Muslim Indonesian family that converted, explaining that they now pray to Allah as Father, Son—Jesus is called Isa—and Holy Spirit.)

“In Mongolia, the president opened the country to Christians and there’s even an archbishop,” Pacwa said. “They built a Catholic school there too. If I was younger, I would have gone.” He said that the desire for a Western education was the impetus to open up the country to the Catholic Church.

Mongolia now has around 1,000 Catholics and three churches. “It has gone from a mission in 1991-2003 to a prefect apostolic which means they have a bishop, although it is not yet formally a diocese,” Pacwa said. “They have had their first native Mongolian ordained a priest and there are three Mongolian seminarians.”

There are even conversions happening in many strict Muslim countries, according to Pacwa. He did not want to go on record with particulars for fear of increased retribution. Mass conversions are also being reported among refugees that are filling up the Christian churches left empty by Europeans. Many wonder if those are authentic conversions or just a response to improving their chances for amnesty, but time will tell.

Signs of this conversion are showing up in the U.S. too, Pacwa said. “I was about to celebrate Mass at a Maronite church in San Diego and I said hi to a man who introduced himself as Achmad. I asked if he was a Christian. He said: ‘Yes, I was recently baptized.’ He said he from Morocco. Christians do not have the name Ahmad—that’s a form of Mohammad.”


Source of Conversions

How are so many conversions taking place in oppressive countries where proselytizing can bring a death sentence? “A large number of Muslims are receiving visions of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary that has led them to convert,” Pacwa said. “Many of these stories can be seen online.”

Another big source of conversions, according to Pacwa, is through Father Peter (Butros) Zakariam, a Coptic Orthodox priest exiled from Egypt known as the most wanted man in the Muslim world. He does a TV show every Friday, which is broadcast to 60 million Arabs, and a six-hour internet discussion show every Tuesday and Thursday. There are also many videos on the internet of him boldly proclaiming Christianity and denouncing Islam.

“The Muslims have a price on his head—$60 million,” Pacwa said. “He’s in hiding but moves around. He keeps producing these TV shows and attacks Islam because he is brilliant in his knowledge of the Quran and he is fearless.”

To learn more about Father Zakariam go here.

How the CIA Launched the Financial Pearl Harbor» Attacks on Russia and Venezuela

This is something that the CIA could actually have facilitated. 

Thus our major suppliers have lost the ability to lower production volumes at all. Hardly good husbandry.  Yet the ability of the USA to frack its way out of any supply shortfall makes this particularly attractive at this time in history.

As I have extensively posted, two strategies now available allow us to entirely dump oil.  One is superior battery technology.  That alone likely triples our available supply from built infrastructure.  The second is the tapping of Dark Matter energy which is no trick at all as we disturb attached free electrons allowing them to decay. 

Both technologies could be built out in a five through ten year cycle because neither demand massive capital outlays.
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How the CIA Launched the «Financial Pearl Harbor» Attacks on Russia and Venezuela

Wayne MADSEN | 20.12.2014 | WORLD | BUSINESS


https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/12/20/how-cia-launched-the-financial-pearl-harbor-attacks-russia-venezuela.html

Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan's long familiarity with Saudi Arabia, owing to the time he spent there as the CIA station chief in Riyadh in the 1990s and his knowledge of Saudi oil operations, has paid off. Petroleum industry insiders claim that Brennan's agents inside Saudi Aramco convinced the firm's management and the Saudi Oil Ministry to begin fracking operations in order to stimulate production in Saudi Arabia's oldest oil fields. The Saudis, who are not known for their hands-on knowledge of their nation’s own oil industry, agreed to what became an oil pricing catastrophe which would not only affect Saudi Arabia but oil producing nations around the world from Russia and Venezuela to Nigeria and Indonesia.

 

By pumping high-pressure salt water into older wells, some at a depth of three to six thousand feet, an inordinate amount of pressure was built up. The CIA's oil industry implants knew what would occur when the fracking operations began. Due to the dangerously high water pressure, the Saudis were forced continuously pump oil until the pressure became equalized. That process is continuing. If the Saudis ceased pumping oil, they would permanently lose the wells to salt water contamination. In the current "pump it or lose it" situation, the Saudis are forced to pump at a rate that may take up to five years before they can slow down production rates to pre-glut levels.


The corporate media, including the Bloomberg and Dow Jones virtual business news monopolies, issued news reports claiming that the Saudis agreed to keep production high at the November meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in order to retain their market share amid increased U.S. oil production from fracking.


The net result of the CIA-inspired fracking operations, which the Saudis were warned not to pursue by petroleum engineers working for some foreign-based firms like Schlumberger, is that there will be an oil supply glut for the next 5 years. The glut will be followed by a reduction in Saudi oil production unless new oil fields are brought on line. There is now a major push by U.S. and Canadian oil companies to bring online the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the United States to offset the expected sharp rise in oil prices in four to five years. But with Canada suffering financially from the drop in oil revenues, the Keystone XL project is also on financially shaky ground.


The CIA operation to frack Middle Eastern oil fields was not only limited to Saudi Arabia. Oil industry sources have revealed that similar fracking caused over production problems in Kuwait and Iraq.


The CIA’s sabotage of Saudi and other oil fields is not a first for the agency. In 1982, a massive and devastating explosion of the Trans-Siberian Pipeline was said to have been the work of Trojan horse software implanted by a Canadian company on behalf of the CIA. Former U.S. Air Force Secretary Thomas Reed, who served in the Ronald Reagan White House, confirmed the CIA’s role in the industrial sabotage. The CIA cooperated with the Israeli Mossad in creating the Flame computer virus that crippled Iran’s nuclear enrichment equipment. Another CIA-Mossad virus, Stuxnet, had wreaked havoc on nuclear power plants around the world.


The CIA is believed to have played a part in the crash of the Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet 100 in May 2012 in Indonesia. A Russian military intelligence spokesman said that U.S. industrial sabotage in downing the flight, which killed 45 Indonesian and Russian nationals, was considered a likely cause. The crash came after the head of the Russian space agency, Roskosmos, said he believed that it was possible that the failure of the Phobos-Grunt mission to the moons of Mars may have been caused by American sabotage.  [ i do not think so for this one -  arclein]


The CIA’s use of industrial sabotage against the Cuban sugar industry, the Chilean and Zambian copper industries, and the Haitian rice industry is legendary. Explosions at oil refineries in Iran, Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, and Venezuela, pipeline explosions in Syria and Libya, and a Brazilian Petrobras marine oil rig collapse, have been attributed to CIA proxy terrorist groups.


The result of the sudden decline in oil prices has resulted in heavy damage to the economies of the CIA-targeted countries of Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. Brennan and his economic warfare operatives absolutely banked on the Saudi over-production to harm the economies of all three countries and the CIA has not been disappointed. The CIA figures that «regime change» would bring to power pro-U.S. governments in Russia, Venezuela, and Iran.


Already, from his base in Switzerland, exiled Russian tax evader billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky has called for President Vladimir Putin's violent overthrow and even his assassination. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress took its cues from the CIA and voted to impose devastating economic sanctions on both Russia and Venezuela. President Barack Obama approved the congressional sanctions. Similar congressional legislation to increase sanctions on Iran is pending.


Russia has been harmed the most by the CIA's Saudi oil production scheme. The Russian ruble fell 56 percent in value against the U.S. dollar while Russian interest rates climbed to 17 percent. The price of shares of Russia's largest lending bank, Sberbank, fell 18 percent. Although the Russian economic collapse has resulted in financial ripples around the world, with Austrian and French banks losing their stock values and the value of the Polish zloty and Hungarian forint falling against the dollar, the Obama administration says that there will be no easing on economic sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine. Obama has also put the individual and institutional investments of American holders of Russian bonds in dire jeopardy.


The Pacific Investment Management Company's (PEBIX) Emerging Markets Bond Fund, which holds over $800 million in Russian bonds, has lost almost 8 percent in value in the past few weeks.


Meanwhile, basic staples in Venezuela, including cooking oil, rice, and corn flour, are becoming hard to obtain. On the Venezuelan black market, the U.S. dollar has jumped 1700 percent in value against the Venezuelan bolivar. The CIA is using the financial collapse to push for an undemocratic overthrow of the Venezuelan government and CIA operatives are providing cash payments to Venezuelan opposition politicians and provocateurs.


Iran, which has been under punitive Western economic sanctions for a number of years over its nuclear power program, is probably best able to weather the storm. Iran has built up a rather impressive domestic food production, telecommunications, and oil industry infrastructure to survive the sanctions. However, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani appears very aware of the Saudi role in the conspiracy to drive down oil prices. Recently, Rouhani said of the drop in oil prices, "The main reason for [it] is political conspiracy by certain countries against the interest of the region and the Islamic world and it is only in the interest of some other countries . . . Iran and people of the region will not forget such conspiracies.»


The economic hardships imposed on oil-producing Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, has resulted in an opportunity for the Islamic State to gain adherents in the country, especially among the young and unemployed population. The economy of China, which is hoping to begin pumping oil from lucrative marine reserves in the South China Sea, is feeling the strain of lower oil prices. Mexico, wracked with social instability, has also suffered from the CIA’s machinations. However, instability in Mexico has always been advantageous for the CIA, which continues to benefit from the illegal drug trade that keeps the agency’s slush fund accounts flush with cash.


Brennan's and the CIA's industrial sabotage of the Saudi industry will continue to have far-reaching effects on the world economy. Oil industry insiders fear that the CIA has unleashed something that may deal a devastating blow to the global economy from which it will be difficult to recover.

Protecting its interests: FDA attacks CBD supplements to protect Big Pharma’s opioid profits

What type of mindset do you have to have in order to obstruct the marketing of a completely safe food product that also improves health in competition with a failing drug protocol?

 

Right up there with been a guard at Auschwitz.  

 

Everyone knows better.   My take is that this is a rear guard activity against a movement completely overwhelming the industry.  It is now legal in every State to actually use medical cannabis..


Protecting its interests: FDA attacks CBD supplements to protect Big Pharma’s opioid profits

Sunday, November 19, 2017 by: Ethan Huff

Tags: Big Pharma, cannabidiol, cannabis, CBD, drugs, FDA, marijuana, medical police state, totalitarianism

https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-11-19-fda-attacks-cbd-protect-big-pharma-opioid-profits.html

(Natural News) Big Pharma is working overtime to restrict consumer access to cannabidiol, or CBD, a non-psychoactive component of cannabis sativa (marijuana) that’s been shown to help relieve pain, muscle spasms, and other ailments. Using the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as authoritative cover, the industry is quietly leading the charge to ban CBD from being used in dietary supplements, even though the substance is completely natural and offers numerous health benefits while causing no harmful side effects.

Just in the past several weeks, the FDA (on behalf of the legal drug cartel) has sent warning letters to four separate companies that currently sell dietary supplements containing CBD. Two of the companies, Stanley Brothers Social Enterprises and That’s Natural Marketing and Consulting, are located in Colorado. The other two, Natural Alchemist and Green Roads Health, are located in California and Florida, respectively.

All four companies sell natural CBD botanical products that, for all intents and purposes, directly compete with patented pharmaceutical offerings at the pharmacy. Because of this, the FDA is now trying to shut them (and anyone else selling CBD products) down under the guise of protecting “public health.” It also just so happens that a drug company known as GW Pharmaceuticals already sells two CBD-based “drugs” that have previously been subjected to the FDA’s expensive drug approval process.

The one is known as “Epidiolex,” and it’s currently marketed for children with epilepsy. The other is known as “Sativex,” and it’s marketed for use in treating spasms related to multiple sclerosis (MS) and chronic pain, including in patients undergoing conventional cancer treatments. GW Pharmaceuticals paid the FDA a lot of money in Investigational New Drug (IND) application fees to get these drugs on the market, while the four companies currently selling CBD dietary supplements who received warning letters from the FDA have had no financial interactions with the agency concerning their sale.

 

The FDA can ban anything it wants by calling whatever it wants to ban a ‘drug’

And that’s the kicker here: The FDA runs a tight ship when it comes to allowing only those products on the market from which the agency is able to extort a cut of the profits. If a pharmaceutical drug causes serious side effects or death, for instance, it’s a-okay as long as the company selling that drug previously paid off the FDA in the form of New Drug Application (NDA) fees. On the other hand, if a completely safe and natural product like CBD is helping millions of people, the FDA may still choose to ban it by declaring it to be a “drug” that needs to undergo official approval.

In the case of CBD, it’s a natural plant extract that does not require FDA approval in order to be sold. This means that it also doesn’t have to undergo expensive FDA approval in order to hit store shelves – a situation that time and time again for many different natural products has resulted in the FDA taking drastic and draconian action against suppliers who dare to sell people therapeutic plant botanicals without the FDA’s official blessing.

Because it works well and isn’t a drug, CBD has been in the crosshairs of the FDA for years. Back in 2016, the agency reportedly sent out 21 warning letters to companies selling CBD-based products advising them to stop. In 2015, the FDA sent out 15 letters of a similar tone. Though in the most recent batch of letters, the FDA decided to take an even more aggressive approach to the alleged “illegality” of CBD, which the FDA has erroneously dubbed a “drug.”

“It is a prohibited act under section 301(ll) of the Act (21 U.S.C. 331(ll)) to introduce or deliver for introduction into interstate commerce any food to which has been added a drug for which substantial clinical investigations have been instituted and for which the existence of such investigations has been made public, unless the drug was marketed in food before any substantial clinical investigations involving the drug were instituted,” reads the FDA’s statement in each of the letters.

“The existence of substantial clinical investigations regarding CBD has been made public. Based on available evidence, FDA has concluded that section 301(ll) prohibits the introduction into interstate commerce of any food to which CBD has been added.”

Follow more news on the healing power of cannabidiols at CBDs.news.

Sources for this article include:

NutraIngredients-USA.com

NaturalNews.com

Plants synthesize miraculous medicines at the molecular level

This makes excellent sense, once you understand that all such chemistry is directed by the underlying cellular processor apparatus formed out of Dark Matter or the second tier of matter.

Better yet, it informs us that it may be possible for our consciousness to form an intention able to produce such benefits for ourselves thus directing decision making at the cellular level.

How to actually go about any such thing remains elusive.  Welcome to spaceship man.


Health Ranger: Plants synthesize miraculous medicines at the molecular level

Sunday, November 19, 2017 by: David Armstrong3

 
Tags: disease prevention, healing foods, Health Ranger, medicinal herbs, Medicine, Natural, natural medicine, phytochemicals, phytonutrients, plant medicine, Plants, superfoods, trees

 https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-11-19-health-ranger-plants-synthesize-miraculous-medicines-at-the-molecular-level.html

(Natural News) Did you know that plants naturally synthesize miracle-class medicinal molecules that can prevent and reverse disease?

Corrupt governments and drug makers have long tried to convince you that only man can create “drugs” in artificial laboratories, but the simple truth is that plants have long been creating antibiotics, anti-diabetes nutrients, anti-cancer nutrients and a long list of other miraculous compounds that are safer and more affordable than toxic pharmaceuticals, says Natural News founder/editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, in a recent podcast at HealthRangerReport.com.

After explaining how solvents are used to dissolve certain chemicals in food samples during laboratory testing and that different solvents can extract different chemical constituents, Adams said that plants actually are capable of manufacturing their own “miraculous” medicines during the process.

“Plants are pharmaceutical laboratories, you might say,” Adams noted in his podcast. “And they synthesize molecules by themselves.”

Those molecules take on a self-defense kind of role, protecting the plant from disease and other vectors while also providing it with nutrients. And in these ways, they can also be useful to humans, he says.

Plants, and especially their root systems, must be anti-bacterial as well because otherwise they would be destroyed by bacteria that are present in the soil.

“Every plant that survives, or virtually every plant, creates its own antibiotics,” said Adams. “Have you ever thought about that?

That makes every plant and tree a “pharmaceutical manufacturer,” he added.

As the Health Ranger noted in a 2011 column for Natural News, these ‘medicines’ are all around you:

The most powerful food and medicine on the planet is free, and it’s growing right outside your door and around your neighborhood.

Did you know that wild local plants and foods are far better for you than organic produce from a supermarket? They’re naturally loaded with plant-based medicines — phytonutrients — and you’d be surprised how many are growing near your home right this very minute. In fact, no matter where you live, there are an astounding number of wild plants in your region that have been used for thousands of years as FREE food and medicine.

He went on to note that average persons do not have this kind of knowledge, and therefore are oblivious to the healing properties of plants. Most think food only comes from plastic containers and that medicine must only be doled out by Big Pharma and traditional medical doctors.

In this podcast, Adams noted that many medicines manufactured by the pharmaceutical companies actually do come from some plants, including tree barks. “Plants are able to do this because they have to do it in order to survive,” he said. “If you look at antibiotics that are available in nature, you find that they’re extremely widespread. You find that almost every type of plant has some kind of antiseptic or antibacterial property in some of the tissues of the plant.”

Later, he reiterated what he had written in 2011, noting that there are likely plants and weeds growing in your backyard that may contain cures for chronic diseases, like diabetes and cancer, or some that could prevent heart disease, reverse Alzheimer’s, or treat other conditions.

And, said Adams, when you account for plant life growing in all the different regions of the planet, there is a veritable unlimited source of ‘medicines’ that are simply waiting to be utilized.

“Some of them have different properties, but they all have in common the idea they can help prevent disease, accelerate your healing, and keep you healthy,” said Adams.

The Health Ranger invites you to stay further informed at Medicine.news, NaturalNews.com, and Fresh.news. Meanwhile, listen to his entire podcast here or click below.

Engineers are developing robot farmers that may make widespread pesticide spraying obsolete

This is the real future of agriculture and it is arriving fast.  Every plant can be optimized for productivity.


Initially the tech will be applied to the mass applications, but just as quickly to even the smallest need.

This will completely end massive pesticide applications in particular.  After all a mini drone can literally hunt down specific pests and either hit them with a pesticide micro dose or even capture a grub.   Harvesting will become as specific as well.  And wastage will steadily decline.




We can imagine a swarm of drones grabbing specific tools and then buzzing out to the fields from dawn to sunset or even all night as well..

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Engineers are developing robot farmers that may make widespread pesticide spraying obsolete

Sunday, November 19, 2017 by: Russel Davis

 
Tags: agriculture, automation, crops, farmers, food supply, fruit picking, harvest, harvesting, pesticides, robotics, robots


https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-11-19-robot-farmers-pesticide-spraying-obsolete.html


Natural News) Farmers may soon find their work a bit more relaxed as a team of researchers at the Harper Adams University in the U.K. is in the process of developing miniature robots that would help them harvest crops and apply pesticides. According to the researchers, the miniature robots show potential in cutting excessive pesticide use, curbing food waste, and easing labor shortages. The experts estimate that the technology would be ready in as early as 2020.

The developers stress that the miniature robots will be primed for field work and apply pesticides on crops that really need it. According to the researchers, the technology is a stark contrast to the current application process called “spray and pray” where the pest control chemical is blanketed over the entire field and not given to specific plants. The experts note that the current process wastes 95 to 99 percent of pesticides and herbicides. The scientists add that the new technology is slated to apply 100 percent of the pesticide directly on the targeted crop.

“Farmers have been heavily reliant for decades on the heavy use of pesticides. Some spraying is very desperate. Farmers are spraying [chemicals] to which there is resistance. They will not be killing pests as the pests have evolved resistance. They will be killing other insects [such as pollinators],” explains Toby Bruce, professor of insect chemical ecology at Keele University in the U.K.

Furthermore, the experts stress that the new technology will have the capacity to autonomously plant seeds, weed, water and spray crops without having a farmer operate and manage the technology on the field. (Related: Scientists developing laser robot that can zap weeds without using pesticides.)
Miniature robots boost harvest quality by picking best produce

In addition to targeted pesticide application, the miniature robots are also set to revolutionize the current harvesting processes. The developers note that today’s current process concentrates on slaughter harvesting, which involves bulk-harvesting the crops from the fields all at once. According to experts, this method results in significant food waste as up to 60 percent of crops are being thrown away because they are either wonky or inedible.

The research team explains that the miniature robots can be programmed to only pick crops that have reached the correct maturity and ripeness. The miniature robots will feature a mechanism that detects malformed fruits and vegetables. Likewise, the research team adds that the new technology will be able to identify crops that require more time prior to harvesting, thus giving the plants enough room to reach proper ripeness.

“I am trying develop a completely new agricultural mechanisation system based on small smart machines. We are developing laser weeding, droplet application where only 100 percent of the chemical goes onto the target leaf, selective harvesting where we can grade the product at the point of harvest. Between 20 and 60 percent of crops is thrown away at the point of harvest because supermarkets won’t buy [a] wonky veg[etable], because you and I don’t buy wonky veg[etables]. When we are faced with a set of tomatoes or lettuces we pick the best one not the worst one. But we can leave lettuces behind which perhaps can’t be sold today, but we can come back next week and be able to harvest them then,” says Professor Simon Blackmore, head of agricultural robotics at Harper Adams University.

However, the researchers have cautioned that while the development has reached its advanced stages, more needs to be done to introduce the miniature robots to the market. The experts note that farm companies are currently tied to more conventional machinery and blanket spraying, and that fears over business risks may deter them from adopting the technology.

“I think the innovation will come from start-ups. We need to see more start-ups in this field,” Professor Blackmore adds.

Follow more news about robot automation at Robots.news.




Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

TheGuardian.com

What is Pauline Christianity?

This is the most important question regarding Christianity as it informs the whole of Christendom.  I am now able to properly address how it needs to be understood.

First, it needs to be understood that Jesus survived his crucifixion through a combination of careful planning and preparation allowing his body to be revitalized before that became impossible.  It was a real scheme that ensured his body came down in a few short hours and was quickly placed in the large tomb.

Second, he was a living spiritual master and plausibly the best that ever lived and capable of pulling this off.  He was able to stand by until he could he could be assisted from the other side in the revivification.  We are seeing just this happening with any number of near death experiencers.  This is actual public confirmation.

Third, living spiritual masters exist in all times including today.  These masters have the capacity to share knowledge mind to mind when his disciple is a long way away.  I know this from informants and observation.  This characteristic is central to understanding Paul.

Once he resurrected, he then reformed his band of disciples and gave them a crash course on spiritual mechanics allowing them to perform some of the things he could.  Problem was, none were literate and capable of building up a larger movement using written documents and this would soon be necessary.

In the nonce, he got himself out of Judea and went back to his monastery in Kashmir where he was physically safe.  From there he was able to communicate with his disciples through mind to mind.

We know that he then lived into his 80's  Thus he had ample time to encourage the disciples.

He then identified Paul who was then focused on him as an enemy.  By opening Paul's mind to mind to mind communication and also showing him the inner sun, he converted Paul to his cause.   This allowed for letter writing and an exposition on additional doctrine. Thus it is reasonable to assume that Paul's letters are in fact channeled from a living Jesus.

Their success alone supports the efficiency of this material.  Paul did not have to invent a thing as he had Jesus to ask and most of the other disciples understood this as well.

In the end Christianity survived the destruction of first century Judaism and did not get locked down in legalism.  Not bad in terms of a general vision for a completely new movement that had to also compete with the Jewish christian movement...

What is Pauline Christianity? 

https://www.gotquestions.org/Pauline-Christianity.html

Question: "What is Pauline Christianity?"

Answer: Pauline Christianity is a term applied to what some perceive as the religious teaching unique to Paul’s writings and distinct from the gospel of Jesus. That is, Jesus taught one thing, and Paul taught something completely different. Those who believe in a separate Pauline Christianity believe that the Christianity of today has little to do with Jesus’ teachings; rather, it is the product of Paul’s corruption of those teachings.

We believe that the New Testament is a unified whole: the Gospels present the life and work of Jesus the Messiah; the Epistles explain the meaning and scope of Jesus’ work and apply it to daily living. For example, Matthew 28 narrates the fact of Jesus’ resurrection, and 1 Corinthians 15 explains the significance of His resurrection. Mark 15:38 tells of the temple veil being torn in two when Jesus died; Hebrews 10:11-23 reveals the import of that event. The same Holy Spirit who inspired the Gospels also inspired the Epistles to give us a fuller understanding of God’s plan of salvation.

However, those who theorize about a separate “Pauline Christianity” tell a different story:

Jesus, a great teacher, considered himself to be the long-awaited Messiah for the Jews. He believed that God would overthrow Rome and bring His kingdom to earth. In preparation for this, Jesus taught a message of unconditional love, tolerance, and non-judgmental acceptance of everyone. Alas, Jesus’ mission of inaugurating a new earthly age failed when the Romans crucified him.

Jesus’ followers, believing that God had raised their rabbi from the dead, continued to meet in Jerusalem under the leadership of James, Jesus’ brother. Their intention was to await the still-coming kingdom and continue observing Jesus’ brand of enlightened Judaism. But along came Saul of Tarsus, who faked a conversion in order to infiltrate the church. Peter and James and others who had actually known Jesus were suspicious of Saul, who had never met Jesus.

Then Saul, who started calling himself “Paul,” had a stroke of genius. He artfully combined traditional Hebrew ideas with those of pagan Greek philosophy, creating a new religion that could appeal to both Jews and Gentiles. He began preaching that Jesus was actually God, that Jesus’ death was linked to the Jewish system of sacrifice, that one could be saved by simply believing, and that the Mosaic law was obsolete. Paul’s zealous missionary activity and persuasive writings took his new “gospel” around the Roman Empire. The Jerusalem Church, including Peter and James, disowned Paul as a heretic and cult leader.

After the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the Jewish Church lost authority, but the Gentile Church founded by Paul increased its influence. One of Paul’s fervent followers wrote the book of Acts, which gave Paul legendary status with its glowing portrayal of him as the hero of the church. Later, four unknown writers gathered scraps of information about Jesus and wrote books they called “Matthew,” “Mark,” Luke,” and “John”—but Paul’s theology, already dominant in the church, tainted the writers’ perspective. Thus, Paul’s religion won out over Jesus’ religion.

In short, Paul was a charlatan, an evangelical huckster who succeeded in twisting Jesus’ message of love into something Jesus himself would never recognize. It was Paul, not Jesus, who originated the “Christianity” of today.

Commonly, those who hold to the above theory also believe the following:

1) Jesus was not divine. He never claimed to be God, and he never intended to start a new religion.

2) The Bible is not an inspired book and is riddled with contradictions. None of the Bible, except possibly the book of James, was written by anyone who knew Jesus. There are fragments of Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels, but it is difficult to discern what he really said.

3) Paul was never a Pharisee and was not highly educated. His “conversion” was either a personal hallucinogenic experience or an outright fraud. His claims to be an apostle were attempts to further his own authority in the church.

4) Pauline theological “inventions” include a) the deity of Jesus; b) salvation by grace through faith; c) salvation through the blood of Jesus; d) the sinless nature of Jesus; e) the concept of original sin; and f) the Holy Spirit. None of these “new doctrines” were accepted by Jesus’ true followers.

5) The Gnostic Gospels are closer to the truth about Jesus than are the traditional four Gospels of the Bible.

The concept of “Pauline Christianity” represents an outright attack on the Bible as the Word of God. Adherents of the “Pauline Christianity” theory are truly misrepresenting Jesus’ teachings. They choose to believe His words on love but deny His teachings on judgment (such as Matthew 24). They insist on a human Jesus, denying His divinity, although Jesus plainly taught His equality with God in passages such as John 10:30. They want a “loving” Jesus without having to accept Him as Lord and Savior.

Any time a skeptic finds a “disagreeable” doctrine in the Bible, he is likely to say, “That passage has been corrupted,” or, “Paul wrote that, and we know he was a liar.” Where the Gospels teach a “Pauline” doctrine, such as Jesus’ atonement for sin in John 1:29, the skeptic dismisses it as “inserted by devotees of Paul.” In reality, the skeptic’s only basis for such a selective approach to Scripture is a personal bias against the idea of Jesus’ atonement.

Interestingly, Paul’s credentials as an apostle were attacked, even in his own lifetime, by those who desired to lead the church into legalism and other errant ideologies. Paul defends himself from the spurious attacks of false teachers in 1 Corinthians 9; 2 Corinthians 12; and Galatians 1.

Paul’s apostleship is attested to by the miracles he performed (Romans 15:19), the training he received (Galatians 1:15-20), and the testimony of the other apostles. Peter, far from being Paul’s enemy, wrote this about him: “Our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15-16).

Planned Parenthood could face federal charges for trafficking baby body parts

I can understand the impatience, but do recall that the full resources of the Justice department is presently focused on the literal draining of the Swamp.  In fact all hell is breaking loose there under a shroud of secrecy using the leadership of the US military in particular.  Sessions is running a smoke campaign including his so called Marijuana campaign while this is pulled off.

Four hundred drug labs identified last week are now been eliminated.  It is that heavy.

At this point the Deep State has be be badly frightened.  The assault has been sudden and in possession of excellent intelligence.

With what is coming out on Planned Parenthood, they will be part of the general cleanup of loose ends that include sixty admirals in Pacific Command and a massive kick back scheme.  After all, these folks have no where to run...

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Planned Parenthood could face federal charges for trafficking baby body parts

Saturday, November 18, 2017 by: Ethan Huff

 
Tags: abortion, body parts, criminal acts, federal crimes, grassley, Jeff Sessions, Planned Parenthood, trafficking

https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-11-18-planned-parenthood-could-face-federal-charges-for-trafficking-baby-body-parts.html

Natural News) Republican Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona is calling on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to step up and take action in prosecuting the nation’s largest abortion mill, Planned Parenthood, for illegally selling murdered baby body parts as part of a massive, underground criminal operation. 

 

During a recent hearing, Rep. Franks pointed out that Congress has compiled more than enough evidence to indict Planned Parenthood for its illicit body part trafficking scheme, which has garnered obscene profits for the abortion provider. Much of this evidence comes from a series of undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) that depict top Planned Parenthood executives cutting deals with agents pretending to be baby body part buyers while wining and dining.

 

Such activity is not only amoral and grotesque in every sense of the word, but it’s also illegal under federal law, which means it’s a highly prosecutable offense. But thus far, Sessions has done nothing to go after Planned Parenthood, as his primary focus since being sworn in seems to be to spread Reefer Madness paranoia as part of his personal vendetta against legal cannabis.

 

Sessions has also taken a reticent approach in going after high-level criminals in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere who are being accused of treason, human trafficking, and pedophilia. Many are wondering what, exactly, Sessions has been doing for the past 10 months other than bemoan states’ rights on issues with which he personally disagrees.

 

“If the FBI has requested what is now several thousand pages of testimony and findings the Senate has gathered through their investigation of Planned Parenthood, that may mean that they could be readying indictments against individuals who have committed the sale of these little body parts for profit,” Franks stated directly to Sessions during a recent hearing.

 

“Generally speaking, are findings made by any Senate investigation, any subsequent referral, sufficient evidence for the Justice Department to bring charges upon any party guilty of violating federal law?” he then asked.

 

 
Senator Grassley led charge in investigation determining that Planned Parenthood had violated federal law

 

In his response, Sessions stated that it all depends “on the substance of those congressional findings, but they certainly can provide a basis for starting an investigation.” He added that “verifying the findings of the Congress could provide a basis for charges,” which seems to imply that Donald Trump’s Justice Department (DOJ) might just take action against the nation’s largest abortion provider. 

 

Last December, the Senate Judiciary Committee had referred Planned Parenthood to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for further investigation. The committee’s head, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, had referred not only Planned Parenthood but also several other abortion providers to the FBI after a lengthy investigation into all of the evidence compiled by CMP.

 

The committee had found, as per the words of Grassley in a letter he wrote, “substantial evidence suggesting that the specific entities involved in the recent controversy, and/or individuals employed by those entities, may have violated that law.” He added that “that evidence is contained entirely in those entities’ own records, which were voluntarily provided to the Committee and are detailed in the report.” Planned Parenthood, on the other hand, denies all allegations of wrongdoing.

 

As per federal law, no company or persons can legally profit from the exchange of fetal tissue, except in cases whereby “reasonable payments” are offered. But in the case of Planned Parenthood, company executives were seen trying to profit as much as possible in order to buy expensive goods like Lamborghini cars.

Scientists Find Root That Kills 98% Of Cancer Cells In Only 48 Hours

A quick refresher here. Dandelion is powerfully indicated for cancer therapy and it is also a pro health protocol.

Anyone coming off chemo needs to max on the tea to encourage a positive response.  The pause should be short and slowly building up the dosage is indicated here rather than jumping right in.

What i find attractive is that you can harvest it yourself and use it to determine results.

At the same time you need to be careful.  It alters blood chemistry and will conflict with other protocols. Be you own scientist. ...  
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Scientists Find Root That Kills 98% Of Cancer Cells In Only 48 Hours

http://nativestuff.us/2017/06/scientists-find-root-that-kills-98-of-cancer-cells-in-only-48-hours/

Scientists Find Root That Kills 98% Of Cancer Cells In Only 48 Hours: This root has been used medicinally since ancient times for its various health benefits. However, the most powerful benefit to come out of this common weed is something that medical researchers are super excited to have “discovered” – which is its potential to cure cancer! This potent root builds up blood and immune system- cures prostate, lung, and other cancers better than chemotherapy. According to Dr. Carolyn Hamm from the Windsor Regional Cancer Centre in Ontario, Canada, dandelion root extract was the only thing that helped with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. This form of cancer typically affects older adults. John Di Carlo, who at the time was a 72-year old cancer patient at the hospital, was sent home to live out his final days after all efforts failed to treat his leukemia.

He told CBC News that he was advised to drink dandelion root tea as a last ditch effort. Perhaps it should have been the first option offered in his treatment plan, as his cancer went into remission only four months later! His doctors attributed this to the dandelion tea that he drank. Recent studies have shown that dandelion root extract can work very quickly on cancer cells, as was evidenced in Di Carlo’s case. Within 48 hours of coming into contact with the extract, cancerous cells begin to disintegrate. The body happily replaces these with healthy new cells. Further studies have concluded that the extract also has anti-cancer benefits for other types of cancer, including breast, colon, prostate, liver, and lung cancer! Dandelion root tea may not taste as pleasant as other teas, but it’s certainly more pleasant than living with the side effects of chemotherapy or radiation treatments. Traditional cancer therapies harm the immune system by killing all cells, even the healthy ones. Dandelion root has the opposite effect – it actually helps boost your immune system and only targets the unhealthy cells. It’s definitely a win-win situation! Dr. Hamm warns, however, that dandelion root extract can negatively impact the effects of chemotherapy. It’s always best to consult with your doctor, and let them know any and all supplements or foods that you are consuming on a regular basis. Even if you don’t have cancer, eating the greens or drinking dandelion tea can still give you great health! For example, the roots and stems of dandelion can help fight diabetes. It does this by stimulating the pancreas to produce insulin, which in turn stabilizes the spikes in blood sugar levels. 

 If you suffer from digestive issues or need to get rid of toxins, dandelion tea may be just what the herbal medicine doctor ordered! The liver aids the digestive system by producing bile, and it also filters the blood of chemicals and other impurities. According to Dr. Axe, the vitamins and minerals found in dandelions can help cleanse the liver and keep it in tip top shape. So by supporting your liver, you are actually creating better health! Dandelions are also high in antioxidants and vitamin C, which is crucial to helping your body fight off infections, such as the bacteria that cause urinary tract infections. If you suffer from frequent bouts of UTI, drinking dandelion tea on a daily basis may prevent it from happening ever again. Dandelion greens are bitter, but completely edible – as long as you get it from an area that hasn’t been sprayed with chemicals. The greens are rich in fiber, which is great for intestinal health! High fiber diets have also been shown to reduce the risk of obesity, heart disease, and irritable bowel syndrome. The greens are also high in vitamin A – just one cup contains 100% of your recommended daily allowance. Vitamin A is critical for maintaining healthy vision, and it can also prevent premature aging of the skin. Also read: Your Body Is Acidic. Here Is What You Need To Do (The Real Truth Behind Cancer You Will Never Hear From Your Doctor) Since you probably aren’t likely to eat an entire cup of bitter greens on its own, you can incorporate it into a morning smoothie. Just blend it up with your favorite fruit, which will offset the bitter taste.


WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW TO FIND OUT HOW TO MAKE FRESH DANDELION TEA FROM SCRATCH:

 http://nativestuff.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/How-to-harvest-prepare-and-use-dandelion-leaf-and-root-for-beauty-and-health.mp4?_=1

New BLACK DEATH plague strain can kill ‘in just 3 HOURS’ as lethal disease goes ‘airborne’

 

I have a real problem with this story.  The disease is easily controlled with attentive sanitation and that is why outbreaks are uncommon and quickly brought under control.

 

On top of that it shows up on an island were it is easily contained.  Thus we must ask if we are dealing with a weaponized version of the disease?

 

The probability is not zero and really way too plausible.  If that happens to be true, then it is  certainly airborne.

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.New BLACK DEATH plague strain can kill ‘in just 3 HOURS’ as lethal disease goes ‘airborne’ 

AN outbreak of the "Black Death" – also known as pneumonic plague – has been described as the "worst in 50 years" as numbers of recorded cases soar.

By George Mills / Published 16th November 2017

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/660127/new-black-death-outbreak-kill-three-hours-Madagascar-death-toll-video

The disease has already killed more than 171 people in Madagascar alone, with thousands more confirmed cases across the east African country.

Malawi became the 10th neighbouring nation to be placed on high alert following the deadly outbreak of the disease which wiped out a third of the medieval population.

The epidemic accounted for more than 50 million deaths across Europe during the 15th century.

Madagascar’s health authorities have installed medical checkpoints across the parts of the capital city of Antananarivo in an attempt to curb the spread of the plague.

Pneumonic plague, or lung-based plague, is always fatal in infected individuals if left untreated. 

GETTY/GOOGLE DEADLY DISEASE: Doctors fear a 'new strain' of the Black Death could kill in 'three hours' 

WHO says Madagascar plague is 'especially worrying'

A local news crew following one health worker in the stricken city heard doctors informing residents that the new strain of the disease “can kill in three hours”.

Earlier this week, infection and immunity expert Dr Matthew Avison told Daily Star Online that the “extremely rare” disease has been “resilient” to antibiotics.

A spokesman for the World Health Organisation admitted there were fears that this strain of plague – which is now believed to be airborne – could cause a global outbreak of the disease.

  GETTY 

DEATH TOLL: More than 160 people are now confirmed to have died in the latest outbreak 

BLACK DEATH hits Madagascar: Medieval plague decimates African coast 

The plague death toll has risen to 143 in Madagascar. World Health Organization figures show the black death outbreak has now infected 1,947 people in the country off the east coast of Africa.
1 / 15 

AFP/Getty Images

World Health Organization figures show the plague has killed at least 143 people Speaking to Daily Star Online, disease outbreak expert Professor Paul Hunter said the plague could reach every continent, starting with mainland Africa.

He said: “This current outbreak is concerning given that it is different from previous cases we have seen, and has been spreading to areas that are not used to seeing it.

“We don’t want a situation where the disease spreads so fast it gets out of control.

"We are talking about it spreading in days rather than weeks.”

It comes after top secret files revealed Japanese scientists had been cultivating the killer disease during World War 2 in an attempt to use it against US forces.

Tea Lovers Have It Made Thanks to Markets

Tea is of course god's gift to the porcelain industry. that never stops giving.  There is also a serious alternative called Yerba Mate out of South America that is in early days of biological improvement.

The husbandry has become global and that will continue.  It is a holly like bush which is surely ideal for planting with orchard trees.  As we need to see working fence rows separating agro - fairways this type of plant is a working option able to withstand a robust ground cover.

This article is also an excellent economics lesson as well.  The globalization of tea has been a true boon to humanity in terms of pleasure and natural economic flow.

Tea Lovers Have It Made Thanks to Markets

From Chinese god-emperors to bags of Lipton: the story of tea is the story of trade.


by Leisa Miller


https://fee.org/articles/tea-lovers-have-it-made-thanks-to-markets/

When I say “tea time,” what do you think of? The dainty clinking of fine china, biscuits and cucumber sandwiches, posh British accents… Maybe you picture the small teapot with the side handle and the Japanese tea ceremony. Or a tulip-shaped glass with scalding hot Turkish tea. I personally think of tiny clay cups and tightly rolled Taiwanese oolongs. There are so many possible mental images because tea has been traded and embraced by so many different people.

A Brief History of the Tea Trade

Legend has it that tea became a thing 4,000 years ago in China when the god/emperor Shennong asked his servant for a cup of water and some tea leaves blew into his drink. The drink was widely regarded to have medicinal properties ever since. But it wasn’t until the 9th century AD that the first book was written about it.

At some point in the same century, tea was brought from China to Japan by Buddhist monks. The drink and its preparation developed into something totally unique. While tea in China at the time was primarily considered medicinal, tea in Japan took on a more pronounced religious nature (think: the Japanese Tea Ceremony).

International competition and trade have increasingly caused its price to go down

Enter the Europeans in the early 17th century. The Dutch were the first to bring tea from China back to Europe. It took a while to catch on, but gradually tea became a luxurious drink among the upper classes and aristocrats in France and Great Britain. Eventually, it made an appearance to the general public in coffeehouses in Europe and the American colonies. Much like in Japan, tea in Europe started to take on its own unique character. Europeans saw tea time as a social activity. They shifted away from green tea in favor of black tea, and began adding sugar, milk, and sometimes lemon to their cups.

By the end of the 18th century, Great Britain was importing more black tea than green tea, and it quickly became one of the world’s largest consumers of the drink. In order to challenge the Chinese monopoly on tea production, the British began growing tea in India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). And again, a new tea culture emerged. The Masala chai as we know it originated in India in the 20th century.

Tea has since started being grown in many other countries too: Taiwan, Indonesia, and Kenya, to name a few. Each country that adopts tea gradually gives it a character of its own. And international competition and trade have increasingly caused its price to go down.

Tea Today

Trade and globalization have made this drink and the secrets of how to best brew it way more accessible today than at any other point in history.


It doesn’t even matter that coffee dominates the hot drink industry in the United States. As an obsessive tea enthusiast, I can still satisfy my eccentric needs by researching and buying the good stuff online. You see, where there’s a need, there’s a market. And the online tea market is bustling with a great selection of leaves that will delight you no matter what your tastes or budget are.

There are a ton of affordable, convenient options out there if you’re looking to buy tea. But not all teas are created equal. If you’ve ever been to Teavana, you know what I’m talking about. Their wares are so delicious, but so, so expensive.

What should you get instead? I’m glad you asked.

For the College Kid Who’s Fed Up with Coffee Crashes

Thankfully, you don’t have to shell out $50 for a single tin of quality tea. So if you’re a poor college kid that needs a reasonable dose of caffeine right now, I recommend buying Twinings or Harney & Sons bagged tea from your local supermarket.

Bagged tea is a fantastic invention. Just plop the bag in your mug and fill it with hot water. Done. You can even reuse the tea bag if you need another quick pick-me-up.

Twinings and Harney & Sons produce my favorite bagged teas. The quality of their tea is consistently good, and they're usually available at Target, Kroger, or wherever you happen to shop. Even if you’re a millennial who no longer goes to the store (UberEats and HelloFresh, anyone?), you can pick these brands up on Amazon and have them sitting on your doorstep in two days.

Easy to drink and easy to find. What more could you ask for?

For the Busy Mother Whose Kids Are Spending the Night at Grandma's

I wouldn’t be a proper tea connoisseur if I only told you where to buy bagged tea, would I? So let’s say you’re ready to take the plunge into loose leaf teas. You’re a mom whose kids got picked up by grandma for the evening. You’ve got some time to pamper yourself and really relax. What should you check out?

Scratch Teavana off your list (unless you hate your wallet) and hit up Adagio Teas. Adagio is an online vendor that sells a massive variety of tea. Want something with pineapple? They’ve got it. Vanilla? It’s yours. That African herb called “rooibos?” Add to cart. They even give you the option to create your own blend of tea with whatever herbs, spices, or fruits you want.

The best part of all is definitely the reasonable pricing. I remember the first time I went to Teavana, I spent almost $100 on tea that lasted me about 6 months. Assuming I drank 1 cup a day, that means I spent around $0.50 per cup. That’s still better than Starbucks, but the average cup of tea on Adagio only costs $0.12 per cup. Adagio Teas provides better quality, better selection, and lower prices. 

And even though this scenario is supposed to be about buying and brewing loose leaf tea, you can buy your tea from Adagio in the loose leaf or bagged variety. Loose leaf tea is more cost effective and fun, but like we said earlier, where there’s a need, there’s a market. And the market for quality bagged tea is plentiful!

Fun to drink and easy to find. Treat yo’self.

For the Instagram Foodie or Introvert Who Loves Trying New Things

Finally, we’re getting to the greatest achievement of the tea market: the vast selection and distribution of specialty tea.

“Tea” is technically any drink that is made with the plant Camellia Sinensis (the tea bush). Herbal “teas” like chamomile and rooibos are not technically teas.

“Specialty teas” have an even more extreme definition: they’re any drink that is made solely with the plant Camellia Sinensis. They contain no fruits, no herbs, no oils, no added fragrances, nothing. You get tea leaves. That’s it.

This might sound bizarre or boring, but there’s a surprisingly large demand for specialty tea. You can find a bunch of people on Reddit, Instagram, and Steepster who are extremely dedicated to the craft and process of preparing a good cup of tea. They go all out with exotic-looking, handmade teaware imported from China and Japan. You’ll find on every connoisseur’s shelf several bags of the same tea harvested during different years or seasons or varieties that are harvested at different altitudes.

Part of the delight of these teas is asking the question, “If I do X to the tea leaves, how will the taste change?” What happens to the taste across leaf varietals, aging, oxidation levels, terroir? Curiosity very quickly transforms into fascination, and then into obsession.

The number of people who want this particular kind of tea isn’t as large as the number who want a cup of coffee. They’re not even the majority of the tea-drinking population. But still, because there is indeed a demand for this stuff, and because the internet keeps operating costs low, lovers of specialty tea can get what they want for a totally reasonable price.

Back to the important details though. Where can you buy specialty tea?

Yunnan Sourcing is one option. The founder, Scott, is an American who sources his tea and operates his business directly from China. If you want to try authentic Japanese teas, take a look at Yunomi. Interestingly enough, Yunomi was also started by an American, and ships fine Japanese teas worldwide. Or maybe you want something truly unusual, like a wet stockpiled tea from Nepal or a “purple” tea from Kenya. That too can be arranged! What-Cha, which is operated by a guy from the UK, specializes in unusual teas from all over the world.

There’s also Eco-Cha, White2Tea, Crimson Lotus, Vadham, Teavivre… the list goes on and on. Each vendor serves a particular market need. And specialty tea lovers are eating — or rather, drinking — it all up.

The ease of international trade and access to information today has made it possible for all these vendors to operate and serve tea fanatics like me.

Trade and the Exchange of Ideas Have Made This Drink What It Is

Tea has been around for thousands of years. It went from being an exclusive commodity only available in China to an expensive luxury only known to European aristocrats to less than a dollar per cup across the world. Each time it’s changed hands, it’s turned into something new and unique. And thanks to the internet and the present-day capacity for international trade, tea doesn’t have to be the dominant drink of any culture to be bought and sold in a wide array of fashions.

Quality, consistency, and variety have all gone up, and prices have come down. This is the power of trade.

Factory-Like Schools Are the Child Labor Crisis of Today

 I do think that my one room school did it better.  My high school did well enough but not so good as to provide for a useful alternative to social smoking.  Or to create bully free environments even with access to coercion.

The first problem is time control which has obviously degenerated into what is convenient for the laziest teacher.

The school has the children for six to seven hours.  That whole protocol needs to be better understood and creatively managed.  We have already had a discussion of reversing the homework presentation cycle.  How about teachers been attached to their classes during recess to direct social interaction and provide authority as requested?  It is still a serious change of pace.

This way it becomes plausible that homework becomes contemplative meditation in which material is carefully read.  And with prepared minds, it may become possible to have class sessions in which student present additional readings  to their fellow students thus encouraging the rest to expand their preparation.

A history class about the thanksgiving myth will be a lot more interesting if all came to class having read same and then listen to readings of alternative descriptions.  In fact it allows a proactive learning environment.

After school, children do need chores to attend to, either family driven or better yet, community driven.  This burns off any remaining physical energy before going home for supper.  Those forests do need active grooming by ad hoc grooming teams who set out to collect a bin of material. .

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Factory-Like Schools Are the Child Labor Crisis of Today

Compulsory schooling was meant to save children from the dangerous conditions of the factory, but these days, "traditional" schooling is easily just as dangerous to children's well-being.

by Kerry McDonald

https://fee.org/articles/factory-like-schools-are-the-child-labor-crisis-of-today/

Most American children and teenagers wake early, maybe gulp down a quick breakfast, and get transported quickly to the building where they will spend the majority of their day being told what to do, what to think, how to act. An increasing number of these young people will spend their entire day in this building, making a seamless transition from the school day to afterschool programming, emerging into the darkness of dinnertime. For others, there are structured afterschool activities, followed by hours of tedious homework. Maybe, if they’re lucky, they’ll get to play a video game before bed—a rare moment when they are in control.

There is mounting evidence that increasingly restrictive schooling, quickly consuming the majority of childhood, is damaging children. Rates of childhood anxiety, depression, behavioral problems, and other mental illness are surging. Teenage suicide rates have doubled for girls since 2007, and have increased 30 percent for teenage boys. Eleven percent of children are now diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and three-quarters of them are placed on potent psychotropic medications for what Boston College psychology professor Dr. Peter Gray describes as a “failure to adapt to the conditions of standard schooling.”

Dr. Gray goes on to explain:

It is not natural for children (or anyone else, for that matter) to spend so much time sitting, so much time ignoring their own real questions and interests, so much time doing precisely what they are told to do. We humans are highly adaptable, but we are not infinitely adaptable. It is possible to push an environment so far out of the bounds of normality that many of our members just can't abide by it, and that is what we have done with schools.

In the early twentieth century, concern about children’s welfare in oppressive factories was a primary catalyst for enacting child labor laws and simultaneously tightening compulsory schooling laws. Yet, for many of today’s children, the time they spend in forced schooling environments is both cruel and hazardous to their health. Gone are the oppressive factories, but in their place are oppressive schools. Where is the outrage?

In a New York Times Op-Ed article this week, author Malcolm Harris posits that young people are placed into these high-pressure, increasingly competitive schooling environments by corporate interests aiming to push job training to younger ages without having to pay for it. He writes:

There are some winners, but the real champions are the corporate owners: They get their pick from all the qualified applicants, and the oversupply of human capital keeps labor costs down. Competition between workers means lower wages for them and higher profits for their bosses: The more teenagers who learn to code, the cheaper one is.

[ this is total leftest rubbish - arclein ]

Harris’s solution is to encourage students to unite collectively, following a labor union paradigm, to demand better schooling conditions. He asserts:

Unions aren’t just good for wage workers. Students can use collective bargaining, too. The idea of organizing student labor when even auto factory workers are having trouble holding onto their unions may sound outlandish, but young people have been at the forefront of conflicts over police brutality, immigrant rights and sexual violence. In terms of politics, they are as tightly clustered as just about any demographic in America. They are an important social force in this country, one we need right now.

While Harris and I agree that the conditions of forced schooling are untenable and rapidly worsening, we disagree on the solution. To suggest that students unionize to demand better compulsory schooling conditions is similar to suggesting that prisoners unionize to demand better prisons: It’s a fine idea but it’s completely futile. Children are mandated under a legal threat of force to attend compulsory schools.

The first step to addressing the oppressiveness of forced schooling and its harmful effects on children is to fight the compulsion. Rather than trying to improve the conditions of an inherently unjust, state-controlled system, the system itself must be overturned. After all, humans cannot be truly free when they are methodically, and legally, stripped of their freedom under the pretense that it’s good for all.