"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

      King David even prayed concerning his enemies; "Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle." (Psalms 109:29)

      Thank God, Jesus is coming back soon to once again bring order out of chaos. Be sure you know Him and have received Him as your Savior.

      Our first video we found to be a very interesting presentation by Rob Bell called "Everything Is Spiritual". Although it is rather long, one hour and eighteen minutes, we think you will find it of interest if you have not already viewed it.

      We hope you find the rest of the material informative.

***

CNET

Rep. Lofgren: Copyright bill is the 'end of the Internet'

by Declan McCullagh October 27, 2011

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat whose district includes the heart of Silicon Valley, speaking in 2009

(Credit: U.S. House of Representatives)

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the California Democrat whose district includes the heart of Silicon Valley, is preparing to lead congressional opposition to the new Stop Online Piracy Act.

The antipiracy legislation, introduced yesterday in the House of Representatives to the applause of lobbyists for Hollywood and other large content holders, is designed to make allegedly copyright-infringing Web sites, sometimes called "rogue" Web sites, virtually disappear from the Internet.

"I'm still reviewing the legislation, but from what I've already read, this would mean the end of the Internet as we know it," Lofgren told CNET.

Lofgren, whose congressional district includes the high-tech center of San Jose, will be a key ally for Google, Yahoo, and other tech companies who are already working with advocacy groups through trade associations to figure out how to defeat SOPA (PDF), also known as the E-Parasite Act.

So far, at least, they're outnumbered, outspent, and outgunned. SOPA's backers include the Republican or Democratic heads of all the relevant House and Senate committees, and groups as far afield as the Teamsters have embraced the measure on the theory that it will protect and create U.S. jobs.

SOPA is so controversial -- the Electronic Frontier Foundation calls it "disastrous" -- because it would force changes to the Domain Name System and effectively create a blacklist of Internet domains suspected of intellectual property violations.

Lofgren's long familiarity with tech issues (I interviewed her at a Santa Clara law school conference in February, and she's been dubbed a politician who "actually understands how the Internet works") will help her rally SOPA opposition. More importantly, though, she's a member of the Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet that will meet soon to review the legislation.

A Senate version of the bill called the Protect IP Act, which a committee approved in May, was broadly supported by film and music industry companies, who say there's no other realistic way to shut down rogue Web sites. But Google chairman Eric Schmidt was sharply critical, as were prominent venture capitalists, civil liberties groups, and trade associations representing Web companies.

For Lofgren, at least, opposing an expansion of copyright law won't be a novel task. After the Department of Homeland Security began seizing alleged piratical domains last fall, Lofgren wrote a letter to the department expressing concerns about the practice.

When an earlier version of Protect IP was advancing in the Senate last year, Lofgren said: "I'm particularly concerned that it could set a precedent for further control and censorship of the Internet by foreign governments, and risk the fragmentation of the global domain name system. Many prominent human rights activists and Internet engineers have voiced these concerns, and they deserve serious consideration."

Lofgren has also earned the enmity of some copyright lobbyists for trying to expand Americans' fair use rights. In 2002, she introduced a bill--which was ultimately unsuccessful--that would amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to allow consumers to make backup copies of digital media such as DVDs that they had lawfully purchased.

Before It's News

The 13 Crystal Skulls Will Arrive In San Francisco On 11-11-11

24 October 2011

The Mayan Elders, The 13 Crystal Skulls, & the Importance of Their Upcoming Ceremonial Pilgrimage Across the USA

By Cal Garrison - The Spirit of Ma'at

I first heard about the Crystal Skull journey back on the twenty-third of July. At the time I wasn't quite sure how it would all come together because so many variables, both logistical and ethereal, had to be taken into consideration. Since that day many things have been arranged and rearranged. After several meetings, Hunbatz Men, Mayan Daykeeper and Elder Priest of the Mayan Itza Council, and Pedro Pablo Chuc Pech, President of the Mayan Council of Elders, have announced their plans to lead a group of Mayan Elders on a ceremonial pilgrimage that will carry the Thirteen Crystal Skulls from one coast of the United States to the other. The journey will begin in Manhattan on the 27th of October, 2011; it will culminate in Los Angeles on November 11th, 2011.

On 11:11:11, another group of thirteen Elders will arrive in LA from the Mayaland to come together in a Gateway Event that will be highlighted by the performance of the Mayan Crystal Skull Ceremony. The Elders, whose traditions have always been kept within their inner circle, have been instructed to perform all of their ceremonies in public from this point on; for this reason, the Ceremony of the Thirteen Crystal Skulls, a ceremony that was last performed 26,000 years ago, will be open to the general public.

Enroute from New York to Los Angeles the Elders will stop at specific power points to fulfill a prophecy which states that the time has come to reawaken the Spirit of the North American Continent so that it can reclaim itself as the sacred ground in whose soil would be sown the seeds for the enlightenment of all mankind. At each stop along the way ceremonial gatherings will be held to open the ground and raise the ancient energies that will fuel the Gateway Event in Los Angeles on 11:11:11. All of these gatherings will be open to anyone who feels called to participate.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the significance of the Thirteen Crystal Skulls, these ancient relics are said to contain information about the history of our planet and the future of mankind. Carved out of pure quartz crystal, and other crystals such as jade, the Skulls generate an energy field that activates human consciousness in a way that expands our perceptions of reality. Ultimately they are the manifestation of Spirit in a form that is now helping to shift the magnetic frequency of Mother Earth. When the Spirits of the Skulls are ceremonially awakened, ancient wisdom, wisdom that has been preserved in a crystalline matrix for eons, enters the unified field and fills the collective consciousness with all the knowledge of everything that has happened on the planet in the last 26,000 years, and perhaps beyond.

If it boggles the mind to consider the full import of these events, the following message from Hunbatz Men and the Mayan Elders will help you to put everything into perspective:

TO ALL OUR SOLAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS:

We are very glad to inform all of you initiates from all over the world that on October 27th, 2011, the pilgrimage journey in which we are going to take the sacred Crystal Skulls, is going to leave from Manhattan, New York, with destination to Los Ángeles, CA, in the United States.

All along the way we are going to invoke and implore the Great Cosmic Spirit to enlighten our pathway and the roads we are going to walk on carrying our sacred crystal skulls. This way the skulls will enlighten and activate all the sites where the Great Cosmic Spirit is going to be present. Thus, the sacred sites we are going to visit like Great Serpent Mound, OH; the temples of Cahokia, IL; Sedona, AZ; and many other sacred centers will be activated through this cosmic resonance. Tamuanchán (the original Mayan name for the USA) will be once again the sacred site that must enlighten the whole of mankind in this world.

theguardian

The medieval, unaccountable Corporation of London is ripe for protest

George Monbiot

Working beyond the authority of parliament, the Corporation of London undermines all attempts to curb the excesses of finance

It's the dark heart of Britain, the place where democracy goes to die, immensely powerful, equally unaccountable. But I doubt that one in 10 British people has any idea of what the Corporation of the City of London is and how it works. This could be about to change. Alongside the Church of England, the Corporation is seeking to evict the protesters camped outside St Paul's cathedral. The protesters, in turn, have demanded that it submit to national oversight and control.

What is this thing? Ostensibly it's the equivalent of a local council, responsible for a small area of London known as the Square Mile. But, as its website boasts, "among local authorities the City of London is unique". You bet it is. There are 25 electoral wards in the Square Mile. In four of them, the 9,000 people who live within its boundaries are permitted to vote. In the remaining 21, the votes are controlled by corporations, mostly banks and other financial companies. The bigger the business, the bigger the vote: a company with 10 workers gets two votes, the biggest employers, 79. It's not the workers who decide how the votes are cast, but the bosses, who "appoint" the voters. Plutocracy, pure and simple.

There are four layers of elected representatives in the Corporation: common councilmen, aldermen, sheriffs and the Lord Mayor. To qualify for any of these offices, you must be a freeman of the City of London. To become a freeman you must be approved by the aldermen. You're most likely to qualify if you belong to one of the City livery companies: medieval guilds such as the worshipful company of costermongers, cutpurses and safecrackers. To become a sheriff, you must be elected from among the aldermen by the Livery. How do you join a livery company? Don't even ask.

To become Lord Mayor you must first have served as an alderman and sheriff, and you "must command the support of, and have the endorsement of, the Court of Aldermen and the Livery". You should also be stinking rich, as the Lord Mayor is expected to make a "contribution from his/her private resources towards the costs of the mayoral year." This is, in other words, an official old boys' network. Think of all that Tory huffing and puffing about democratic failings within the trade unions. Then think of their resounding silence about democracy within the City of London.

The current Lord Mayor, Michael Bear, came to prominence within the City as chief executive of the Spitalfields development group, which oversaw a controversial business venture in which the Corporation had a major stake, even though the project lies outside the boundaries of its authority. This illustrates another of the Corporation's unique features. It possesses a vast pool of cash, which it can spend as it wishes, without democratic oversight. As well as expanding its enormous property portfolio, it uses this money to lobby on behalf of the banks.

The Lord Mayor's role, the Corporation's website tells us, is to "open doors at the highest levels" for business, in the course of which he "expounds the values of liberalisation". Liberalisation is what bankers call deregulation: the process that caused the financial crash. The Corporation boasts that it "handle[s] issues in Parliament of specific interest to the City", such as banking reform and financial services regulation. It also conducts "extensive partnership work with think tanks ... vigorously promoting the views and needs of financial services." But this isn't the half of it.

As Nicholas Shaxson explains in his fascinating book Treasure Islands, the Corporation exists outside many of the laws and democratic controls which govern the rest of the United Kingdom. The City of London is the only part of Britain over which parliament has no authority. In one respect at least the Corporation acts as the superior body: it imposes on the House of Commons a figure called the remembrancer: an official lobbyist who sits behind the Speaker's chair and ensures that, whatever our elected representatives might think, the City's rights and privileges are protected. The mayor of London's mandate stops at the boundaries of the Square Mile. There are, as if in a novel by China Miéville, two cities, one of which must unsee the other.

Several governments have tried to democratise the City of London but all, threatened by its financial might, have failed. As Clement Attlee lamented, "over and over again we have seen that there is in this country another power than that which has its seat at Westminster." The City has exploited this remarkable position to establish itself as a kind of offshore state, a secrecy jurisdiction which controls the network of tax havens housed in the UK's crown dependencies and overseas territories. This autonomous state within our borders is in a position to launder the ill-gotten cash of oligarchs, kleptocrats, gangsters and drug barons. As the French investigating magistrate Eva Joly remarked, it "has never transmitted even the smallest piece of usable evidence to a foreign magistrate". It deprives the United Kingdom and other nations of their rightful tax receipts.

It has also made the effective regulation of global finance almost impossible. Shaxson shows how the absence of proper regulation in London allowed American banks to evade the rules set by their own government. AIG's wild trading might have taken place in the US, but the unit responsible was regulated in the City. Lehman Brothers couldn't get legal approval for its off-balance sheet transactions in Wall Street, so it used a London law firm instead. No wonder priests are resigning over the plans to evict the campers. The Church of England is not just working with Mammon; it's colluding with Babylon.

If you've ever dithered over the question of whether the UK needs a written constitution, dither no longer. Imagine the clauses required to preserve the status of the Corporation. "The City of London will remain outside the authority of parliament. Domestic and foreign banks will be permitted to vote as if they were human beings, and their votes will outnumber those cast by real people. Its elected officials will be chosen from people deemed acceptable by a group of medieval guilds ...".

The Corporation's privileges could not withstand such public scrutiny. This, perhaps, is one of the reasons why a written constitution in the United Kingdom remains a distant dream. Its power also helps to explain why regulation of the banks is scarcely better than it was before the crash, why there are no effective curbs on executive pay and bonuses and why successive governments fail to act against the UK's dependent tax havens.

But now at last we begin to see it. It happens that the Lord Mayor's Show, in which the Corporation flaunts its ancient wealth and power, takes place on 12 November. If ever there were a pageant that cries out for peaceful protest and dissent, here it is. Expect fireworks - and not just those laid on by the Lord Mayor.

***

Expess.co.uk

CURE FOR KILLER BLOOD PRESSURE

The discovery means treatment could be transformed with targeted drugs

November 1,2011

By Jo Willey Health Correspondent

THE secret of what causes high blood pressure has been unlocked in a dramatic breakthrough that could save millions of lives every year.

The discovery means treatment could be transformed with targeted drugs. This could slash the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

An astonishing 10 million Britons are thought to have high blood pressure - five million of them without even knowing it.

It affects nearly a third of all under-65s and is the root cause of 62,000 deaths a year.

The breakthrough raises the very real hope that the dangerous condition could be rendered completely manageable.

After 40 years of research, scientists have been able to pin down the mysterious role of an enzyme called renin. It was already thought to play a significant role in high blood pressure, but exactly how it did left researchers baffled.

Now, under the eye of one of the world's leading genetic scientists, a PhD student has discovered why renin can be over-produced in the kidneys, pushing blood pressure up. In the first study to use human kidneys, they found that two vital molecules, known as micro-RNAs, destabilise production of renin.

In the kidneys of those with high blood pressure the renin gene was six times more active while the micro-RNAs were six times less so.

"That is the key," said Professor Brian Morris, the Australian geneticist overseeing the study.

"These two micro-RNAs are very much lower in hypertensive people. So if you lose those, the renin goes up, thus raising blood pressure."

Praising his young student, Francine Marques, he declared: "This is a totally new concept...tremendously exciting."

Professor Morris, a professor of molecular medical sciences at Sydney University, first began studying renin as a young student in the early 1970s.

He now hopes the discovery will lead to the development of drugs which could be designed to "knock down renin expression at its source" - stopping it from creating the high blood pressure.

Ms Marques said the findings, which are published online in Hypertension, a journal of the American Heart Association, are "a huge breakthrough".

The team used 42 kidneys donated by cancer patients who had the organs removed for medical reasons.

She said: "The kidney has been suspected as being the culprit of high blood pressure. But human kidneys are hard to come by.

"As a result, no one had ever before studied human kidneys from hypertensive patients and no one has used the latest genomics technology to probe the kidney in human hypertension."

Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "We've known for many years that renin is a key regulator of blood pressure.

"However, scientists are still a way off developing drugs that could help lower blood pressure by targeting someone's genetic material."

Breakthroughs of this kind are important, he said, because of the very large death toll among those who suffer high blood pressure. Often also linked to obesity, the condition forces blood through the arteries at an increased pressure. Too much pressure puts a strain on the arteries and the heart itself . Left untreated it can cause an artery to rupture or the heart to fail.

Vast numbers of British adults are prescribed low-dose pills to build up protection against high blood pressure on the NHS.

Yet almost half forget to take their medications daily.

Fluoride: Calcifier of the Soul

Sayer Ji

Research published in 2001 showed that fluoride (F) deposits in the pineal gland with age and is associated with enhanced gland calcification. Eleven aged cadavares were dissected and their pineal glands assayed:

"There was a positive correlation between pineal F and pineal Ca (r = 0.73, p<0.02) but no correlation between pineal F and bone F. By old age, the pineal gland has readily accumulated F and its F/Ca ratio is higher than bone." Source

What Is The Pineal Gland?

The pineal gland is a small endocrine gland in the vertebrate brain, and is sometimes called the "third eye" as it is a light sensitive, centrally-located organ with cellular features resembling the human retina.

One article describes the role of the pineal gland in more technical terms here:

"The role of the nonvisual photoreception is to synchronise periodic functions of living organisms to the environmental light periods in order to help survival of various species in different biotopes"  Source

The pineal gland is best known for its role in producing the hormone melatonin from serotonin (triggered by the absence of light) and affects wake/sleep patterns and seasonal/circadian rhythms. Like a tiny pea-sized pine cone it is located near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres  and is a unique brain structure insofar as it is not protected by the blood-brain-barrier. This may also explain why it is uniquely sensitive to calcification via fluoride exposure.

More Than An Endocrine Gland

Technically the mammalian pineal gland is neural tissue, and the cells within the pineal gland - the pinealocytes - have characteristics that resemble the photorecetpor cells in the retina.

This has given rise to the opinion that it should be reclassified:

"In our opinion, the main trend of today's literature on pineal functions - only considering the organ as a common endocrine gland - deviates from this structural and histochemical basis." Source

The pineal gland has been a subject of much interest since ancient times. Galen described it in the 3rd century, and the philosopher René Decartes (1596-1650) identified the pineal gland as the "seat of the soul." His explanation for this conclusion is quite interesting:

"My view is that this gland is the principal seat of the soul, and the place in which all our thoughts are formed. The reason I believe this is that I cannot find any part of the brain, except this, which is not double. Since we see only one thing with two eyes, and hear only one voice with two ears, and in short have never more than one thought at a time, it must necessarily be the case that the impressions which enter by the two eyes or by the two ears, and so on, unite with each other in some part of the body before being considered by the soul. Now it is impossible to find any such place in the whole head except this gland; moreover it is situated in the most suitable possible place for this purpose, in the middle of all the concavities; and it is supported and surrounded by the little branches of the carotid arteries which bring the spirits into the brain." Source: Wikipedia

Decartes was one of the few philosophers who was experienced in vivisection and anatomy, and who righly pointed out the unique nature of the pineal gland's location in the brain and blood supply.

The "third eye" is also a well known symbol in Eastern literature, and may be concretely grounded in the anatomical structure and function of the pineal gland.

Calcium Stones In the Brain

Pineal gland calcifications upon dissection resemble gravel, and are composed of calcite (calcium carbonate) and/or calcium hydroxylapatite, the latter of which is not unlike dentin or bone.  (Source)

Pineal gland calcification is associated with a number of diseases in the medical literature:

Alzheimer Disease - Bipolar Disease - Circadian Dysregulation - Hormone Imbalances: Low Melatonin - Insomnia - Low Back Pain - Parkinson Disease - Schizophrenia - Sleep Disorders - Stroke

Source: GreenMedInfo.com

Fluoride As A "Therapeutic" Neurotoxin?

Now that it has been established that fluoride (F) exposure contributes to the calcification of the pineal gland, the question remains: what are the subjective affects of these tissue changes to those who undergo them?

Prozac may represent an archetypal example of how fluoride affects the personality/soul. This drug (chemical name fluoxetine) is approximately 30% fluoride by weight and marketed as an "antidepressant," even while a major side effect of its use and/or withdrawal is suicidal depression.  Modern psychiatry often treats depressive disorders - the "dark night of the soul" - as an organic disorder of the brain, targeting serotonin reuptake by any chemical means necessary. Fluoride and fluoxetine, in fact,  may accomplish their intended "therapeutic effects" by poisoning the pineal gland.  Animal studies confirm that when mice have their pineal glands removed they no longer respond to fluoxetine.

Perhaps the primary reason why Prozac causes a favorable reaction in those who are treated (poisoned) with it, is that it disassociates that person from the psychospiritual conflicts that they must normally suppress in order to maintain the appearance of sanity and functionality in society, i.e. it is control and not health that is the goal of such "treatment."

If Prozac and other sources of fluoride in our environment deposits within the pineal gland, accelerating the transformation of functional pineal tissue into calcification, is it possible that it works by dehumanizing and flattening the affect of those who are under its influence?

How Do We Prevent Pineal Gland Calcification?

Eliminating exposure to fluoride is the #1 priority.  We can start by being careful about surreptitious forms of fluoride in Teflon, foods and beverages produced with muncipal water, tap water, infant formula, fluoride containing drugs like Prozac, toothpaste, etc. We have collected a number of studies from the US National Library of Medicine on natural substances which mitigate fluoride toxicity.  We also have a section on our database dedicated to finding substances which prevent or reverse other forms of pathological calcification which may have relevance for pineal gland calcification here. Lastly, there is research on the potential value of magnesium and phytate in reducing pineal gland calcification.

***

     Until next week...

Almondtree Productions

"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist."
(Colossians 1:16-17)